


It's you and me always and forever

by niamcuddles



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, M/M, Pining, a little bit of smut too but not enough for a warning, coffee shop AU, college student!niall, i think, liam has a daughter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-09
Updated: 2015-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-28 09:44:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 39,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6324349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niamcuddles/pseuds/niamcuddles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Niall moves to the UK, he meets Liam and his 4 year old daughter Rosie at a coffee shop.</p><p>Little does he know that his instant crush on the brunette would turn into something so big.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's you and me always and forever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brainstorm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brainstorm/gifts).



> hey everyone! this is a birthday present for my good friend brainstorm!
> 
> happy birthday! im really glad we started talking two years (thats long holy shit) ago and i thought id finally repay you for writing that hybrid fic for me for my birthday, i hope youll enjoy it :D
> 
> (also, one time an anon asked me for a coffee shop au on tumblr like MONTHS ago, so if you see this, i hope youll enjoy this as well!)

“Yeah, I did… yes, mum… no, I don’t know anybody yet I literally got here yesterday and-… yeah, it was fine… I’m sorry I didn’t call, I had classes and-… yeah… okay… okay, love you too, I’ll call you back later… yeah, I promise… okay bye, mum.” Niall had to suppress a sigh as he hung up the phone before checking the time once more, yet again not quite sure where he was gonna go now that it was barely afternoon, not quite having expected his very first day of classes to go by so quickly.

It was kinda warm outside, so the blonde had just randomly decided to keep on walking around a bit, not yet wanting to go back to his flat, also partly because it was quite small and not very lived in at all. But it was good though, finally being here now after he had always just imagined how it’d be like, saved up for it and done countless of boring summer and part time jobs. Still though, Niall knew that it’d take some time of getting used to, time he was more than willing to take because he knew that in a few months or so, every least bit of doubt inside of him would have been fully erased.

He didn’t know anybody, obviously, it was a new university, new city and actually also new country, even if he had been in the UK before obviously, but never with the goal of staying permanently, never by himself. So yeah, this was quite an adventure for Niall, but he was totally ready for it, he was good on his own and also good at making friends and getting himself involved so he’d be perfectly fine, right? The sinking feeling in the depth of his stomach was normal, it’d surely pass once the blonde had fully gotten settled in.

Exploring the city was fun to some extent, Niall had been here before but that had been a few years ago, when he had never even dared of dreaming that he’d be able to go to uni here. Now that he was though, he did somehow realize that it wasn’t all that much fun walking around by himself, which Niall blamed on the fact that he was tired, that he had only gotten there yesterday and that flights on planes exhausted him. Even if it had been a very short one.

After an hour or so, the blonde slowly began to realize that one, he had no bloody idea where he was, and two, he probably should ask someone for the way or at least a bus station, which would kinda be hard seeing as he had somehow managed to run off into a street with no single person on the sidewalk. Probably because everyone had something better to do than simply wandering around without a real goal. 

There were two options Niall had, the kinda weird looking supermarket a few houses away, or the coffee shop on the other side of the street, which actually didn’t look any less weird and also empty, but Niall still decided to go for that one, simply because he was sure he’d find someone who could help him out much more quickly. Or maybe not.

Upon entering, the blonde almost walked right out again to check whether the sign had actually read _closed_ , but seeing as the door had opened up, he might as well just stay and wait, because someone would eventually have to turn up right? Even if there weren’t any customers or anybody standing behind the counter. 

“Um… hello?” Niall tried after half a minute, kinda starting to feel slightly freaked out and a tiny bit uncomfortable, like, the streets had also been disturbingly empty, and had he not watched this stupid zombie apocalypse movie last night when he hadn’t been able to fall asleep, he might have not gotten _that_ many creepy thoughts. 

There definitely was some shuffling in the back, though it was rather quiet and Niall almost thought he had had hallucinations, he just kinda stood there, frozen, already thinking that his imagination had been reality after all, but then suddenly… suddenly the least person Niall would have expected popped up behind the counter. A little girl.

“Hi.” She was cute, barely being able to even look over the counter and probably having to stand on something behind it just to reach it, her hands full of different colors while she was holding a pen and a small notepad, looking at Niall as if she was genuinely waiting for him to tell her his order. 

“Hi… umm… are you… are you alone here?” What else had Niall been supposed to ask really, he slowly came closer now, trying to smile at the girl even though he was a bit confused, like… was this normal?

“Nope. My daddy is in the bathroom and I’m helping. What do you want to drink?” It was obvious that she was trying to sound professional and Niall felt himself relax a bit at the explanation and the way she was talking, with a bit of a lisp, still expectantly looking at the blonde, holding her pen ready to write something down. Could she even write at that age?

“Alright, I… do you have anything to recommend?” Actually, Niall hadn’t really planned on buying anything, but how could he have disappointed that face really? 

“Hmmm… I like the hot chocolate, but I’m only allowed to drink the hot chocolate and no coffee but only sometimes because daddy says my belly will hurt if I drink too much.” The girl explained, making Niall smile for real this time, watching her get some of her long, brown curls out of her face, revealing even more splashes of color on the side of her forehead. 

“Then I think I’m gonna trust you and take the hot chocolate as well.” Niall wasn’t thirsty at all, plus he probably wouldn’t have been able to sleep had he drank any coffee right now, so the choice seemed to be a good one, even more so when the little girl started smiling brightly at him before starting to scribble something down, actually, the blonde was pretty sure that she was only drawing instead of writing for real.

He had no idea how he was gonna ask this girl for directions, but Niall wasn’t too worried anymore as he just waited, already making plans to go to the supermarket afterwards when there was some more shuffling in the back and suddenly, a somewhat stressed looking guy walked out. He didn’t look older than Niall, not old enough to be that girl’s dad, but somehow he seemed to be.

“Rosie, why didn’t you call me when you heard someone walking in?” Then, a little bit calmer, he shortly looked at Niall, faking a smile. “Sorry, I was just… in the back.“

“That’s fine, no worries.” The whole situation was actually kinda funny, the girl, _Rosie_ , rolled her eyes before holding the notepad up for the other guy to see, as if it was obvious why she hadn’t called him.

“Because I helped, look.” Still confused, the brunette man took the book from her, just briefly looking at her, about to open his mouth but the girl had already answered what his question was probably going to be about. “He wants hot chocolate. And he asked me what I like to drink too.”

“Okay, I… yeah, that’s nice, bug, I…” Clearly, that guy, who’s name tag read _Liam_ , was a little bit of a loss at words and honestly, suddenly Niall was really glad that he hadn’t walked into the supermarket instead when the other guy’s brown eyes got stuck on his once more. “Sorry you had to wait, uh… are you sure you want hot chocolate?” 

“Yeah, I heard it’s the best hot chocolate around.” Niall lied, immediately having to chuckle when Rosie’s eyes went wide and she looked up at the other man with a grin.

“See, I _told_ you, daddy!” She almost half yelled, immediately getting shushed a bit by her dad, who was half smirking as well though when he typed Niall’s order in for real this time and the blonde boy just kept watching him, trying to be as subtle about it as possible, it’s just… he was really good looking. 

“Alright… that’ll be one pound fifty.” He told Niall after a few seconds, waiting for him to first of all get his wallet out of his backpack and Rosie was actually the one already holding out her hand for the money, so Niall just let two pounds drop into her palm, not really wanting to look for his other coins, and also… she seemed very excited about what he told her.

“Here, you can keep the rest.” Almost immediately, the little girl let out a bit of a squeal while her dad looked ready and up to protest but then let it be when she gave the coin to him and in return giving her Niall’s change, watching her hop down from whatever she had been standing on before getting something from the other counter.

“You’d be surprised by how many people do this.” The Liam guy suddenly spoke to Niall, his head turning for just a moment to see where his daughter was before getting a cup and putting it under the machine while Rose came back, in her hands a what seemed like pretty heavy piggyback bank with her name written over the side. “What do we say, bug?”

“Thank you.” Rosie smiled brightly at Niall before letting the coin drop into the piggyback bank, picking it up again just to shake it and judging by the sounds, the brunette man had probably even understated what he had just said. “Daddy, can I draw something on the cup before you give it to the man?”

“Well… you gotta ask him if he minds, love.” Something told Niall that all of these things happened a lot, and he was glad that nobody else except for him was in here, because he could easily imagine things getting messy and even more stressful for the brunette man if more costumers were in here while his daughter needed attention as well. Then again, why did he bring her to work?

“I’d be very happy if you could draw something for me on there actually, it looks pretty boring, huh?” Niall made sure to tell the girl before she could even ask, finding it quite easy to talk to her, a lot easier than to a few people at uni today, who hadn’t even really wanted to give him any directions to his lecture hall as he had asked. They were all just annoyed about it being Monday though probably, or maybe Niall had imagined that, since it was his first day and he was used to being popular at uni because he had been until last semester, before he had pretty much left all of his friends behind just to come here. 

“Okay! I’m gonna… I’m gonna draw an elephant. No, I’ll draw a cat. And a mouse. I can even write your name on it too, uncle Louis was writing with me yesterday.” Though Niall obviously had no idea what she was talking about, he just kept listening and nodding, smiling at her because he couldn’t have held back even if he had wanted to, she was just so cute. “What is your name? My name’s Rosie.”

“I’m Niall, nice to meet you, Rosie.” Niall watched her face getting a bit confused, cocking her head just as her dad put the full cup in front of her and putting a lid on it, telling her not to touch it anywhere else so she wouldn’t burn herself, but she didn’t seem to be listening to him.

“Niall? That’s a weird name, I never heard that name before.” The blonde chuckled a bit at that, even more so when Rosie got scolded by her dad for saying that, she did seem a little bit guilty afterwards, but after all Niall knew that she had just spoken what was on her mind. 

“I’m not from here, I’m from Ireland, there’s a lot of people who are called that there.” Actually, Niall didn’t know anybody else who had the same name, but the little girl didn’t know that after all.

“Oh… I’ve never been to Ireland… daddy, can we go to Ireland?” She actually seemed hopeful as she looked at her dad, who was just keeping up a smile by now, running a hand through her hair.

“Maybe one day, okay? C’mon, you still gotta draw something, baby.” He encouraged her, almost immediately wiping the other thing off of her mind, for good reason Niall assumed, suddenly feeling slightly bad as he thought about that he had almost brought the other man into a really stupid situation. Then again, he didn’t even know these people anyways.

For a second, Niall watched Rosie staring to draw on the cup with her tongue between her teeth making movements as if she writing even though Niall was pretty sure that she actually really couldn’t, before looking up at the other man once more, finally getting to ask the one question he had come here for. “Hey, um… I actually just wanted to ask whether you could, like, give me some directions maybe, I just only got here yesterday and I have no idea how to get home from here.”

“Oh, sure, there’s a bus station at the next corner, you actually can’t miss it.” Well, that had been easy. “Do you know where you need to get off? There’s only two bus lines and they both stop over there.”

“Yeah, I do thank you, really. Thought I’d have to like… camp out or something.” That had been a pretty stupid joke, Niall actually felt himself getting slightly nervous, not knowing where that had come from, maybe it had been the intense way that guy had been staring at him, as if he was genuinely worried about Niall not finding his way home or something. 

“No problem.” And then then he smiled at the blonde, like, really widely, his eyes crinkling up and Niall almost thought his heart stopped for just the tiniest second, and yeah, Liam was attractive, but usually Niall didn’t crush on people _that_ easily, it’s just… maybe he was feeling a bit homesick or something. 

“Okay, I’m done!” Rosie exclaimed, causing Niall to jerk out of his half trance, quickly looking down at her once more as she pushed the cup towards him with a proud smile on her face and the blonde made sure to act extra surprised when he took it for examination, his smile real though as he looked at her drawings and her attempts at writing his name. “Do you like it? Look, I even drew a doggie in the back.”

“Oh, you did, wow… I love it, thank you so much, you did a really good job there.” Considering she had drawn it on a cup, it really wasn’t bad at all, but Niall would have still said all of that had it been more than just terrible. “Well, then I think I’m gonna go now. Nice meeting you, Rosie.”

“Nice meeting you too! Are you gonna come back soon?” She seemed hopeful and at first Niall just wanted to tell her that he would without actually considering it, but then again, why wouldn’t he come back? He lived here now.

“I think I will. And then you gotta show me how to draw these cool animals, okay?” Taking the cup, the blonde made sure to smile once more at the girl, who was now beaming at him, before briefly looking at the other man’s face, who had a fond expression in his eyes that was probably meant for his daughter, but it somehow still made Niall’s knees just slightly weaker. “Uh… bye, thanks for the hot chocolate, and the directions.”

“Yeah, no problem. Just come back if you can’t find the bus station, okay?” That Liam guy was so nice honestly, like yeah, Niall was a costumer, but still, why did he feel the constant need to stare at this man? “Get home safe.”

“I… yeah. You guys too.” This time, Niall did finally move to leave, rising his free hand awkwardly before walking towards the door, hearing a “Bye, Niall!” behind himself and he thought that just maybe, getting lost today hadn’t really been that bad of an idea at all.

 

\----------------

 

Almost two weeks later, Niall still hadn’t really lived himself in. He didn’t go back to the coffee shop, even though getting on the bus that day, he had realized that he could have probably even walked there from where his flat was, only two stations away, but for some reason, the blonde didn’t go back there, tried focusing on uni instead, on the people there, instead of thinking about that stupid crush he had had momentarily had on Liam. Which was literally insane, that guy had a daughter and Niall wasn’t even the type to fall in love easily, so he had probably just imagined that anyways.

Finding people to talk to didn’t turn out to be so hard at all, but Niall still found himself missing his friends, and his old university, that had been so much smaller and organized, but whenever his mother called, he always told her that there was no way he would have ever wanted to come back home again. Even if sometimes, he did consider the thought for a second. Not that Niall was someone who easily got homesick or anything, just… home was home after all.

It was on a Saturday that Niall found himself lying on his bed, not really knowing what to do with himself because he did have an essay to hand in on Monday, but no motivation really to write it. The people he knew at uni by now weren’t really that good of friends that he could have asked them to hang out and really, he kinda wouldn’t have even wanted to.

Maybe it was because he hadn’t really been to many other places, but for some reason as Niall slipped on his shoes and stuffed his laptop in his backpack, the coffee shop was the only place to go that really popped into his mind. At first, Niall felt slightly hesitant, but then he told himself that he _really_ needed to finish that essay and also, it was Saturday, so there was a great chance that Liam wasn’t even there anyways.

When he arrived, there were more people than two weeks ago, luckily, because it would have gotten a bit awkward otherwise. Niall was pretty sure that he actually recognized someone from uni but decided not to say anything because he wasn’t quite sure, instead just lining up in the small queue that had formed, his eyes searching for the person behind the counter without even planning on it. And then his heart made a little jump.

It was Liam, with a happy smile on his face, his daughter nowhere to be seen right now and maybe she wasn’t even here but Niall barely had any time to think about that because really, the other man suddenly looked even better than he had last time.

For a whole five minutes of waiting, Niall tried to force himself to just be natural, not really used to feeling this way at all, because usually he was confident and he spoke his mind, but this… this right here was somehow different. In the end, he didn’t even know anymore what he had planned on ordering. Damn it.

“Hi, what can I- Oh, hi, Niall.” Wait, what?

“You… remember my name?” Was everything Niall thought of blurting out, feeling slightly frozen underneath Liam’s stare, his smile, the way his eyes crinkled up, as if he was genuinely happy to see the blonde. But he was probably just doing his job.

“Of course. Rosie has been waiting for you to come back.” Had she? 

“Oh, I… I was busy with uni and, uh… “ Niall hadn’t really thought that either of them would remember him, or actually want him to come back, Rosie was just a child, the blonde had assumed she was like this with everyone.

“No need to apologize, mate. So what do you wanna drink?” The longer Niall looked at Liam, the more did he start to doubt that this guy could be much older than him by more than 2 years or something, he looked so young to be having a daughter that could already talk like that, not that Niall was judging him or anything, it was just… unexpected. And not really helpful to get this stupid crush to go away now that he couldn’t even tell himself anymore that Liam was too old for him.

“I’ll just have… whatever coffee tastes the best.” He decided after a short moment of thinking, slightly confused when Liam nodded while chuckling.

“No hot chocolate this time, huh? I can’t blame you, it’s not very good, honestly.” Well… “I’ll make you the coffee I like, alright?”

“Yeah… yeah, that’s fine.” Niall had asked for any coffee after all, not really knowing what to choose, feeling his stomach twisting a bit while he watched Liam typing something before getting a cup and starting to prepare the coffee, very quickly, knowing exactly what he was doing and though somehow Niall wished he would have slowed down just so he could stare a bit longer. 

After he had paid, Liam told him to enjoy his coffee with the same damn crinkly eyed smile on his face and in all honesty, Niall almost stumbled over someone else’s feet as he walked over to the empty table in the corner. This was fine, Liam remembered his name as well, so it wasn’t that weird, right? And this was a coffee shop, Niall could come back whenever he wanted, he didn’t have to feel awkward about it at all.

For about ten minutes or so, the blonde genuinely tried to focus on his essay, positively surprised by how good the coffee tasted compared to the hot chocolate two weeks ago and he actually hated the fact that he would have still pretended to like it just because Liam had told him it was his favorite. This was genuinely getting out of hand, he had only been here for 15 days, he shouldn’t already be crushing on a guy with a kid, should he?

“Hi, Niall!” The blonde almost lost grip of his cup when he heard the voice coming out of nowhere, immediately tearing his eyes away from his laptop as he turned his head to the left, being met by the happiest face he had ever seen. 

“Oh, hi, Rosie.” She had literally come out of nowhere, in her hands holding a coloring book and on top of that way too many crayons, explaining the color that was yet again smeared across her forehead and cheek. Niall found himself smiling. “How are you doing?”

“Really good. Daddy said that if I ask you, I could sit next to you.” There was no way Niall would ever finish that essay if she did, but looking down at her hopeful face and then over to the counter from where Liam was watching with a smile, the blonde boy suddenly decided that he didn’t even care. He could as well finish that tomorrow.

“Of course you can… do you need any help with that?” Niall stretched his hand out, kinda unsure as he watched her placing the book and crayons on the table next to his laptop, almost causing everything to fall down as she started climbing on the chair, sitting on her legs so she’d be able to reach her book. 

“What are you doing on there? My daddy has a laptop too and he always has to work on it really late even when I already go to bed.” Oh.

“I just have to write something for university, it’s really boring. What are you gonna color?” See, Niall wasn’t even trying anymore to continue his essay, instead just kept watching Rosie looking through the pages of her coloring book, the edges kinda torn and most of the pictures already finished, suggesting that she had had that thing for quite a while. 

“Hmmm…. the cat. Do you have a cat? I wanna have a dog and a cat and a horse, but daddy says we don’t have any space and no time.” While babbling on, she chose the blue crayon to start coloring the cat and Niall just settled for watching, finding this to be far more interesting than his homework anyways. He had always been kinda good with children, though he didn’t really know that many, but at some point, he had even once considered becoming a teacher.

“No, I don’t have a cat either. But I’d really like a dog too. What would you call yours if you got one?” There was no way Niall would ever actually get to buy a dog, his flat was too small as well and anyways, he was pretty sure he would have gotten thrown out within a day if he did.

“Batman. Because my daddy really likes that movie and he says I’m not allowed to watch it until I’m older but he told me all about it.” That almost made Niall laugh, Liam obviously really wasn’t that much older at all.

“Oh, right, I didn’t even notice the shirt you were wearing.” It had the batman logo on as well, Niall should have paid more attention but he had kinda been taken off guard. Now though, it really made him smile because this was so cute, she wanted to be exactly like her dad, mentioning him in every second sentence as well. Obviously, Niall barely knew these people, but he was 99% sure that even though Liam seemed to be so young, he was doing a really great job as a parent. “So, what’s your favorite movie then?”

They probably sat like that for an hour or longer before the blonde decided to leave and Niall found it surprisingly easy to keep the conversation steady, somehow easier than with this one guy at uni yesterday that hadn’t spoken a word unless Niall would ask him something. The blonde really wasn’t trying to ask Rosie anything about her life at all, but the little girl just kept babbling on and Niall decided that Liam probably knew how talkative his daughter was and he probably wouldn’t have let her sit with Niall if he had minded. But he had a really good look at them from the counter anyways and Niall felt himself blushing once or twice when he felt the other man’s eyes on him. This was stupid, since when did he blush?

Rosie was 4 years old, she went to kindergarten and she didn’t like it because she much rather spent her time here at the coffee shop with Liam. Also, the girl told Niall all about her favorite movies and animals and then proceeded to talk about Liam’s as well, a few times waving at certain people walking in and the blonde boy realized that this wasn’t uncommon at all. People coming here knew her, probably knew Liam as well, and the only reason why the other man had allowed his daughter to come sit with Niall was probably because she did this all the time.

One thing Niall did notice though was that Rosie never mentioned her mother, or anybody else really except for her dad, and two people she called uncle Louis and uncle Harry and some of her friends at kindergarten, but that was it really. Niall really did not want to feel slightly relieved by that and he hated the fact that he did, but like… Liam was pretty obviously single, and that didn’t mean he was into guys at all, but… it also didn’t mean that he wasn’t, right?

 

\----------------------

 

“Is this seat taken?” The voice surprised Niall only a tiny bit, mostly because he had been trapped in thoughts, but the class would only start in like ten minutes and everyone except the blonde was still talking so he really shouldn’t have flinched quite so hard.

“No, it’s not you… can have it.” He decided after a quick side glance at the guy waiting for his answer, immediately smiling afterwards before dropping his backpack on the ground and half falling into the empty chair next to Niall, not bothering though to take his snapback off. Niall had seen him before, just because they usually always had this class together, but they had never really talked or anything because… well, because even though Niall had found people he thought could potentially become his friends, for some reason he found it significantly harder to really start a conversation with anybody here than compared to back home.

“So you’re new, right? I’ve never seen you before this semester.” Well, considering the size of this university… 

“Yeah, I transferred, like, three weeks ago. I’m Niall.” The blonde added, just to not be rude, in reality though, he was still somewhere completely else with his thoughts, thinking back to yesterday when he had yet again _accidentally_ ended up in the coffee shop, trying not to start feeling hot again when he thought about how Liam had smiled at him before he had left. Maybe it was entirely Niall’s own fault that he seemed to not fit in that well here when he spent his whole time thinking about a guy who probably wasn’t even interested in him and who had a daughter. 

“Thought so. I’m Louis.” For some reason, that name sounded familiar to Niall, but as he turned his head to look at the guy next to him once more, he simply came to the conclusion that it was probably because he had heard somebody else in this class saying it before. “You don’t look very motivated.”

“Uh, well… “ Right, it was Friday, Niall should have probably at least felt the tiniest bit excited but somehow, he wasn’t at all. Actually, everything he had been thinking about the whole week long had been whether it’d be weird for him to go back to the coffee shop a fifth time. But it was like, Rosie was always so excited whenever Niall came around and then Liam obviously had to work but he’d talk to Niall about random stuff if he had time and… honestly, the blonde felt more comfortable there by now than he did at uni. “I’m just a bit tired, is all.”

“Well, I can’t blame you. The professor sounds like he’s gonna sleep in any second, doesn’t he? I’m only here because I failed the class last semester and trust me, he did it on fucking purpose.” Louis actually sounded a bit angry, but when Niall turned his head once more, the other man had simply leaned back, looking quite comfortable there actually. “But whatever, I guess I’ll pass this time. You don’t look very happy about being here, were you forced to transfer or something? Your accent is pretty heavy.”

“What? No, I wasn’t, I… I actually saved a lot of money to be able to move, I just… “ Actually, Niall’s accent wasn’t even _that_ heavy, or was it? “It’s only my third week:”

“Yeah, I know, but still. I’ve seen you hanging out with these guys.” Pointing behind them with his thumb, Niall only briefly turned to check who Louis meant even though it was obvious since there weren’t that many people Niall had sat next to and well… he had kinda figured by now that maybe sitting alone wasn’t that bad after all either. “They’re jerks.”

“What?” Niall tried to act surprised, but deep inside he was a bit relieved. So it hadn’t only been him who had thought that. “Why?”

“They just are. But I guess if I didn’t know anybody I’d probably hang out with them too, just trying to warn you, mate.” What was that supposed to mean? “Hey, I have a really good idea.”

“Um, okay?” This guy was weird as hell, Niall could barely even follow along with the way his trail of thoughts seemed to change every few seconds, but suddenly Louis was smiling at him once more after frowning slightly and the blonde had no idea whether he should have gotten scared or not.

“You’ll let me copy some of your notes and in return I’ll introduce you to some of my friends once this class is over and you won’t have to keep hanging around with these morons.” Though maybe Niall should have found this weird, and maybe it should have made him think because who the hell said stuff like this, he simply found himself nodding, feeling just slightly desperate when he realized just how much he wished to just find some people he got along with. Judging by Louis’ grin, maybe he wouldn’t find them too soon. “Great.”

 

\-------------

 

“Daddy, when’s uncle Louis coming?” Liam felt the tugging on his shirt before he even heard his daughter speak up, only sighing a little bit before putting down the cup he had been drying, instead reaching down to pick Rosie up and placing her on his hip.

“It’ll still take a while, baby… what’s that on your cheek, huh? Is that paint again?” Rubbing on her skin a bit, Liam felt himself smiling when she pouted before trying to turn her head away, her hands still staying wrapped around Liam’s neck though and the man held her easily with one arm. 

“I was drawing something for you. And for uncle Harry and Louis.” She always did, and Liam was pretty sure that even though Louis and Harry had like twenty billion pictures from his daughter by now, that they still kept all of them just like he did, even if the space on the fridge had started running short a year ago. “And for Niall.”

“For Niall?” The brunette asked, rearranging Rosie a bit before kissing her forehead, kinda glad today that no costumers were there, even if it could get boring at times, but it was Friday and the week had been pretty long and Liam was just ready to go home and sleep for a while. Or at least take a nap. 

“Yes… do you think he will come back soon? I like sitting with him.” Rosie sounded excited just about the thought of it and Liam couldn’t help but smile. It’s not like he left his daughter with random strangers all the time, but he knew most people coming here anyways, and he always had an eye on her from the counter, never even left to go to the bathroom whenever she wasn’t in the back. Plus, that Niall boy was hardly a threat, he had only come here four times, a little more often this week, but from what Liam had understood, he was new here, and very obviously didn’t really know anybody, so the brunette man really got it and also… he was kinda cute. Not that they had spoken that much, but they definitely had talked a few times and Rosie had told Liam stuff as well, so he did feel a bit like he knew Niall, knew where he came from, that he went to the same uni as Louis and Harry, so just a normal guy really.

“I think he will... he didn’t like… ask you anything weird, or did he, bug?” Just to be sure, not like Niall seemed like he would be a threat, but you never knew after all and though they had these conversations a lot, Liam could never be careful enough. This little girl was his everything after all.

“No, he didn’t… but he’s funny. And he said that I could be a painter when I grow up because I’m so good at drawing.” Playing with the collar of Liam’s shirt, Rosie rubbed at her eye with her free hand, seemingly as tired as Liam felt because it had already been kind of a long day, especially for her.

“That’s what I always tell you as well, sweetie, you can be anything you want, okay? But maybe after we cleaned those spots off of you, huh?” Chuckling a bit over the face she pulled, Liam walked over to the sink with her to get a wet paper towel, not really knowing what the point was of getting her face clean because she’d probably get it dirty again. “Do you still remember what we’re gonna do tomorrow?”

“We’re going to the zoo!” Almost immediately, her face had brightened up, eyes getting a bit wider and Liam felt his heart warming at the sight, finally being allowed to clean her forehead as well because she was distracted now. Honestly, whenever Liam got a Saturday off he usually liked to just stay at home and relax for a bit, but they had been watching this movie about a zoo last week and ever since then Rosie had really wanted to go and god knows Liam couldn’t say no to these brown puppy eyes. 

“We are. And Louis and Harry are coming too, are you excited?” Usually you would have thought that two 22-year old’s would have something better to do on a Saturday, but they had actually invited themselves once Rosie had told them about it over excitedly. Liam was aware that he was incredibly lucky for having these two as his best friends, they were always there to help out and always had been, ever since Rosie had been born and honestly, the brunette man had no idea if he would have even gotten this far if it hadn’t been for them supporting him. 

“Yes! Are there any lions? Because uncle Louis said that if I’m not careful I might fall in the cage.” Maybe allowing Louis and Harry to come wasn’t that good of an idea. “What if I fall in, daddy? Would they eat me?!”

“No, they wouldn’t, baby, don’t worry. I’d come rescue you, okay? Promise.” Finishing up with the paint splashes on her face, Liam kissed her temple before throwing the paper towel in the sink, quickly throwing a glance to the windows but there was still nobody even making any attempts to come inside so they were good. “Do you wanna have a little snack? Or play something in the back?”

“Hmm… I wanna stay with you and help. Can I, pleeease?” There wasn’t much to do but Liam nodded anyways, just glad that his daughter hadn’t gotten bored with this yet, and that she didn’t mind spending almost all of her day here. Then again, she didn’t really like being at kindergarten even though it was only for a few hours a day before Liam picked her up and they went to the coffee shop and he knew that this wasn’t the most fun place to be at for a child, but Rosie was pretty clingy and so wherever Liam was, she wanted to be too. 

“Of course you can, princess. You can help me dry some dishes and wipe the tables, okay?” Brushing some hair out of her face, Liam rubbed his thumb down her rosy cheek, once again not being able to believe that he had such a beautiful and smart little girl, that even though he had messed up quite a lot in the past, that he was so lucky now and that even though his life was pretty stressful, he still had everything he needed. He had had to make sacrifices of course, for the sake of his daughter, one of them being not being able to go to uni with his friends and the other one being that every single date he had had since the last four years hadn’t really lead to anything at all, but… it was fine, all Liam wanted was for Rosie to have a good childhood and go on to do whatever she wanted, and if that meant having two jobs and squeezing in some online classes in between, he would gratefully do it. “I love you, munchkin.”

“Love you too, daddy.” She smiled her cutest smile ever with her dimples showing and they shortly kissed on the lips before Liam gently put her down, his heart still feeling warmed up as he watched her getting the kitchen towel, her curls jumping up and down as she half hopped over to the tables in order to start wiping them off like she loved to do.

 

\-----------

 

“Uh… where are we going again?” Niall felt a little bit weird, like, he hadn’t really thought that this Louis guy would really want to hang out with him after literally meeting him ten minutes before class, but he obviously had meant it as they were walking out of uni together now, after what had to be the most boring class in the history of eternity. 

“Just some coffee place one of my friends works at, you’ll like him, he’s quite cool.” Well, it certainly wasn’t gonna be the coffee place Niall _really_ wanted to go to. “Unless you have some other suggestions? But I promised him I’d pass by.”

“No, that’s fine, uh… I don’t really… know a lot of other places, so. But if you don’t want me to come, I-“

“I asked you to come though, don’t worry about it, I kinda liked you since last week when you fell asleep during class.” Oh, right, that… “Also, I felt kinda responsible ‘cos I know it’s a bit shitty to move and stuff. When I was a kid, we moved like, every new school year and it sucked.”

“Yeah… I mean, I did move on purpose though, like, I always wanted to come here and stuff and get away from Ireland and I still do, but… “ But sometimes at night, Niall had some doubts.

“Don’t worry, mate, that’ll pass, you’ll be fine. Did you break a lot of hearts when you left?” Louis was obviously joking, he smirked as Niall rolled his eyes at him, at the same time wanting to laugh though because maybe he had and he wouldn’t even know.

“I don’t think I did, actually. I mean, I left my friends, but… “ Well they still called Niall and stuff, it just wasn’t the same anymore obviously, but it’s not like they were holding any grief or whatever. “My mum’s been crying a bit though.”

“Ah, yeah, mothers. Think mine would actually kill me if I decided to leave, I got five younger sisters and someone has to help keeping them in check, it’s almost a fulltime job to be honest. At least that’s what I say whenever my mum asks me why I keep failing classes.” He laughed at himself for that and Niall allowed himself to smile, relaxing a little bit because talking to Louis was nice, and he was actually the first person to actually treat Niall as if they were already friends and it felt really good to be honest. Hopefully the friend Louis was planning on introducing him to wasn’t that bad either.

They walked for quite a bit, just talked about some uni stuff and other random things, and Niall found himself getting a bit lost in the conversation, not checking his surroundings at all to be honest because he didn’t really know his way around the city that well anyways and he trusted Louis to know where he was taking him.

After a while though, Niall found some buildings to be pretty familiar for some reason, and though he still didn’t really think anything of it, maybe it would have at least made it a slight bit easier to at least pretend like his eyes weren’t gonna fall out any second once he suddenly _did_ recognize the street they were in and a pretty late realization almost made him stop in the middle of the sidewalk.

“Um… is that the coffee shop we’re going to?” It was literally the one Liam worked at and Niall already felt himself getting sweaty and hot just thinking about how much of a fucking coincidence this was, his heart bumping a bit faster even though this wasn’t a big deal at all like… other people worked there as well, right? Louis would have probably mentioned his friend having a child? … right?

“Yeah, do you know it?” He just asked as if he didn’t expect an answer and for some reason, Niall felt like lying, but then again… if he walked in there and Rosie and Liam both said hi to him, he would quickly ruin that one chance he had at making a real friend at uni.

“Uh, yeah, I do, um… been there a few times. I actually… on my second day here I lost my way and so I went in there and asked for directions.” For some reason, Louis just smiled at that, didn’t even ask whether Niall had possibly met his friend and the blonde suddenly had a very weird feeling that there was a possibility that Louis _knew_ , but they were literally almost there and he didn’t have that much time to really think about.

Because the second they stepped through that door, Niall suddenly got it.

There were maybe two or three other people inside the coffee shop, all of which were sitting down at some table, and before Niall could even get blushed and check whether Liam was the one standing behind the counter, his nervousness was immediately multiplied at the cheerful squeal he heard. “Uncle Louis!”

Oh. _Oh_.

“Hey, there’s my favorite girl.” Honestly, all Niall could do was stand there with a dumb look on his face while the other man got down a bit, his arms spread wide for the little girl running towards him from behind the counter, making all the other customers stare at them as well.

Sure, it was very cute, seeing Louis pick up Rosie and placing her on his hip, but _cute_ was actually the last word that came to Niall’s mind because all he could think of was that he was really fucking stupid for not having caught on earlier, he had heard the words _uncle Louis_ a few times already and at least now it made sense that Louis had talked to him in the first place. He probably knew, maybe Rosie had told him about Niall or something, but there was no way that Louis hadn’t known, it would’ve been way too much of a coincidence. 

“Hi, Rosie, how are you doing?” Louis was just holding her easily, tickling her side a little bit until she giggled, her arms wrapped around his neck, a happy smile on her face that grew even bigger when she saw Niall.

“I’m good! Hi, Niall!” Well, in case Louis hadn’t known, he did now.

“Hi, Rosie.” Niall forced himself to smile, the whole situation feeling slightly too surreal to really get it into his head yet, but he barely had any time to either because the next thing his eyes got stuck on was Liam’s face. 

“Hey… didn’t know you two knew each other.” Was the first thing Liam said, not in a bad way or anything, he just sounded surprised was all, and well, Niall couldn’t blame him at all because he himself still hadn’t gotten over this. Then again… was it _that_ big of a deal, it’s not like… not like anybody knew about his silly crush, right?

“Only properly met today actually. Sorry I didn’t tell you, Niall, but I thought I knew that kid Rosie was telling me about the other day, never knew anybody with that thick of an irish accent.” Was it really that bad? But they could all understand him fine, right? “Anyways, thought I’d bring him ‘round, he was hanging out with these idiots I told you about, you know, the ones who broke in the supermarket down the street? And since he already knows you two... “

“Yeah, that’s fine. Want anything to drink? Sorry, I can’t give it to you on the house or Harry’s uncle is gonna kill me.” They both laughed while Louis put Rosie back down, who kept beaming up at him and then at Niall, even though the blonde was probably making the dumbest face ever while trying his hardest to not stare at Liam too much. Had he somehow gotten better looking since a few days ago? And his voice gotten smoother?

“I’ll just get some tea, thanks. Niall?” Well, Niall couldn’t have swallowed anything even if he had wanted to right now.

“Uh… I’m fine, thanks.” There it was again, Liam’s damn smile right into his face and he probably smiled like that at anybody, but… that didn’t mean it didn’t have some kind of effect on Niall. 

They went to sit at some table while Liam disappeared to get Louis’ tea and Niall tried to calm down, very glad about the fact that now that Louis was here, Rosie was mostly talking to him, telling him the same kinda things though thats he always told Niall, but she did climb over into the other man’s lap. Well, she also called him ‘uncle’ and though Niall wasn’t 100% sure, he didn’t see any resemblance between Liam and Louis at all. 

“… and then my teacher said I am the bestest at spelling and I got a star next to my name and a present and look, daddy put it on for me when he picked me up.” She stretched her arm out, showing them a fake tattoo thing for kids in the form of a flower, but somehow Louis managed to get himself to look more excited than Niall could have managed to had he not been mindlessly watching Liam over the counter right now. Maybe it was because Louis had five sisters.

“Oh wow! A tattoo?! I hope that didn’t hurt too much.” He examined her arm while Rosie just giggled and the blonde was at least able to smile a real smile for three seconds. Damn, why was Liam allowed to wear such tight fitted clothes to work?

“It’s not a real tattoo! It’s gonna wash off when I go in the bath. But I’m gonna get a real tattoo when I’m older, just like daddy.” Liam had _tattoos_?! 

“Think we still need to talk about that, bug.” Niall almost fell out of his chair when he heard Liam’s voice, not really being able to fully collect himself before the other man was already standing next to their table, putting down a cup for Louis and one for Niall even though the blonde had told him he didn’t want anything. Oh my god, was he gonna sit down with them?! 

“Well, Li, I think she should be allowed to get one when she’s 18, maybe that’ll keep her from faking your signature just like a certain someone else did.” It was really hard concentrating on Louis teasing Liam when the latter was _actually_ sitting down as well, on the chair opposite of Niall, and the blonde immediately felt himself looking down at the table, pulling his legs back a bit so he wouldn’t accidentally brush Liam’s. What was wrong with him?

“Rosie would never do that, would you, baby? You’d always listen to me, right?” His voice went softer whenever he talked to her, and Niall had never known he could actually feel his heart flatter a bit from somebody being cute with their own child. 

Apparently, this was something Louis couldn’t win because Rosie nodded immediately and Liam smiled at her before giving his friend a triumphant look, who just rolled his eyes before shrugging, taking a sip from his tea while Niall was hesitant to touch his own cup. Why had Liam brought him one anyways? 

“Ha, I win.” Liam sounded pretty proud of that, reaching across the table to ruffle his daughter’s hair and Niall tried to keep on breathing normally, which worked for about half a second before the brunette man’s eyes suddenly settled on his face. “You alright? You look a bit pale.”

“Wha- no, I’m fine, I just… “ Niall made some movement with his hand, almost knocking the cup off the table and now his face definitely wasn’t pale anymore at least. “I didn’t, uh, sleep very well last night, that’s all.”

“I know how that feels like...” There was a very humorless laugh and Niall felt his stomach sink a bit, for a moment looking at the slightly dark circles underneath Liam’s eyes. Weirdly enough, they somehow seemed to make him even more attractive. “Do you live in the dorms?”

“No, I… I have a flat. A really small one, it’s actually… not far away from here, so… “ Shrugging, the blonde had no idea where he had wanted to go with this, all he knew was that if Liam kept on talking to him, he would run out of air sooner or later. It’s just… why’d he always have to look at Niall like that, as if he was genuinely interested in every word he said? “But my neighbors are… I think they like classical music a bit too much.”

Liam actually let out a laugh at that and the blonde was almost embarrassed about how proud he was of that tiny accomplishment. “Mine do too, actually. And they also have a really annoying dog that somehow knows when I wanna go to bed because then he starts barking like a madman. But he’s quite cute, I guess, they always let Rosie play with him, don’t they, love?”

“Yes! And he’s not annoying, daddy, he’s really cute and I wanna have a dog like that too. And a horsie.” She was still on Louis’ lap and the other man let her play with his fingers, not really saying much anymore and just occasionally smirking at Niall, but the blonde barely even noticed.

“Where’d you put your horse, Rosie? In your room?” Louis asked, sounding a bit amused by that, even more so when the girl started nodding with a very serious expression on her face, as if she really had had to think about it. “Well, once you’re a little bit older I’m sure Lottie can take you to one of her riding lessons and show you the horses there.”

“Really?! I’m gonna the best at riding horses, right after Lottie.” Niall had no idea who Lottie was, either Louis’ girlfriend or one of his sisters, but judging by the look on Rosie’s face, it was someone who she knew very well. “Is she coming to the zoo tomorrow too?!”

“Hmm, I don’t think so, babe, she’s got to be at a birthday party. But hey, we’ll have lots of fun without her, right? She was pretty jealous when I told her about it.” Rosie’s face was only disappointed for a moment before she was back at giggling as soon as Louis had poked her side. “Are you excited about seeing all the animals tomorrow?” 

“Yeah… but not about the lions, but daddy said he’d save me if I fall into the cage.” Liam smiled at that, but didn’t say anything and Niall used the chance that he was watching his daughter to look at the older man briefly, relaxing a little bit too soon because just a few seconds later, he had yet another reason to blush like an idiot. “Daddy, can Niall come with us to the zoo as well?”

That had been more than just unexpected, Niall’s head almost immediately snapped, not knowing where to look anymore but desperate not to meet anyone’s face. Obviously, they wouldn’t want him to come, like, why would he, this was stupid, Liam would just have to find a good excuse for his daughter, maybe Niall should have stepped in and told Rosie he had no time or- “You gotta ask him that, baby.”

“Okay! Niall, are you coming to the zoo with us tomorrow? Pleeease?” What?!

“I, uh… “ Niall was speechless, he hadn’t expected Liam to agree at all, didn’t wanna like, crash their plans or anything, but now he had a really hard time saying no when Rosie was looking at him with these huge eyes and the pouty lips, almost begging him. But could he really do that, he didn’t even know these people that well! “I don’t know if-“

“C’mon, Niall, just say yes. It’ll be fun, I’ll buy you some animal food as well if you want.” Louis winked at him, obviously making fun of him and Niall had no idea what to say, this was all coming out of nowhere, this whole day just being full of surprises and the blonde had no idea really how to handle it. Just a day ago he had had no idea whether he’d ever be brave enough to even come here again or who Louis was, and now he was here being treated as if they had all known each other for years or something.

“I… “ For some reason, Niall felt the need to briefly check Liam’s face, see if the other man would hate him if he did in fact say yes, but the brunette was just smiling at him, not at all looking like he was forcing it and since both Rosie and Louis seemed to want him to come… well, Niall hadn’t really had anything planned for the weekend anyways. “Okay, I’ll come… “

“Yay!” Rosie seemed to be overly excited, and though it did make Niall feel better, he was also aware that she was a child, that she probably would have been happy about anybody coming, but the fact that Liam’s expression hadn’t changed into the negative was a good sign, right? “Oh, I’m gonna go get my drawings I made for you, uncle Louis!”

Louis immediately helped her getting off of his lap at that and they watched her running off into the back, followed by Liam who had almost instantly gotten up as well with a “Don’t run, Rosie, you’ve got enough time!” and as soon as Niall and Louis were alone at the table, the blonde thought he could use the time to maybe try and get his cheeks to cool down a bit but a light bump into his ribs said something different.

“Told you you’d like him, didn’t I?” There was a very weird look on Louis’ face, and a weirdly crooked grin and for a moment, Niall was almost certain that the other man was reading him like a fucking open book, that the stupid blushing had immediately given him away and honestly, he had no idea what to answer to that.

What the hell had he gotten himself into?

 

\-----------------------

 

“So, have you already lived yourself in?” Liam was trying to both make conversation and keep an eye on Rosie, who was with both Harry and Louis, holding both their hands, but they were still a few meters in front of him and he was just trying to make sure.

“I think so… I mean, it’s not even been a month, so… “ Somehow, him and Niall had ended up walking in the back together and Liam didn’t mind it, he kinda liked the boy and though he sometimes seemed to come off a bit shy, he was funny too and he was really good with Rosie, so the brunette man was okay with it. Also, Louis had befriended him already and they all mutually felt bad for the blonde because of the move, so why wouldn’t they hang out, right?

“You’ll be fine, I’m sure. You can always just come hang out at the coffee shop whenever you’re bored.” Smiling at the other boy, Liam could see his cheeks getting a bit pinker as he looked away, not really thinking anything of it though because maybe that’s just who Niall was. It made sense, like, he didn’t know anybody and now he was here with them at the zoo, so hopefully he’d be able to calm down about it, they were really all just normal guys. “And you’ve got a few classes with Louis and Harry as well, right?”

“I’ve got one with Louis, uh… I’m not sure about Harry.” Right, they had only met a little bit ago before they had gone to the zoo entrance, but Harry was pretty relaxed about meeting new people so Liam wasn’t doubting at all that he was going to befriend the blonde as well. “I think they’re both like, ahead of me.”

“Right… how old are you?” Liam had never asked that, had always assumed Niall was as old as him and his friends, maybe slightly younger, but he had moved here by himself, so he couldn’t be like, underaged or something, also didn’t look like it at all.

“I’m 21…. You?” That made sense, Liam did notice the question at the end coming out carefully, and it wasn’t hard to guess why. 

“22. And the other two are as well.” Looking over, the blonde seemed to be lost in thoughts for a moment and the brunette decided that he would just make it easy for Niall, since he seemed to be nervous about asking stuff, and it couldn’t hurt to get to know each other a bit more, right? “I got her when I was 18, in case you were trying to do the math now.”

“I… I was just-“

“It’s fine, Niall, don’t worry about it.” Of course he had been thinking about that and Liam felt a bit bad honestly, for yet again making the boy blush, but it also made him smile a little bit. Niall definitely was cute. “You can ask me anything you want, you know, I don’t mind it, I know I don’t really look like the typical dad of a 4-year-old. Hopefully, I mean.”

“No… you definitely don’t… um… do you, like… did you… raise her on your own?” He was clearly nervous about asking this, too, and Liam made sure to stay extra relaxed, so Niall could see that he really did not mind talking about it at all.

“Yeah. She never even met her mother, I… obviously, it wasn’t planned, you know? But I did a few messy things when I was a teenager, like you could maybe guess from the tattoo story yesterday, but… obviously, I’m not gonna tell Rosie until she’s a lot older and can probably guess it herself, but… her mum never wanted to have a child, you know, she just… she left, pretty much right after Rosie was born and I haven’t heard from her again since then, I have no idea where she even lives but it doesn’t matter, ‘cos I never once had a doubt that I wanted to have her, and I’d never regret any of this either.” That was the milder version of the whole story, Liam didn’t even want to think about all the screaming and the crying back then when they had found out, after a bloody one night stand with somebody he hadn’t even known that well, but… he couldn’t have lived with himself giving up his own child for adoption. 

“Oh… I’m sorry, Liam, I… it must’ve been hard, like, being on your own, did… did your parents help you, like… ?” Niall sounded genuinely troubled, which he didn’t have to be though because Liam was happy with how things were and yeah, things had been messed up for a while but in the end, he was a lot better off now than he would have been had he not had Rosie. 

“I don’t know my dad, but my mum did, yeah, and my two older sisters as well. They live somewhere else though, I moved when Harry and Louis went off to uni because Harry’s uncle said I could work at his coffee shop and yeah… that’s how things turned out like this.” First, Liam had had no idea what to do, he had graduated from high school but not very well, and there was no question that he wouldn’t be able to go uni with his friends while having a baby, but then somehow everything had fallen into place like this and his mum had helped him find a place to stay at, which he had paid her back for by now, and honestly, the brunette couldn’t have really asked for more, could he?

“Oh… so, that’s why you’re allowed to bring her to work and everything?” The blonde nodded to himself, as if things started to make more sense now and Liam couldn’t help but chuckle as he thought about how confused Niall had probably been up until now.

“Yeah, Harry’s uncle is cool, as long as I do my work, you know. I’ve got a second job as well though, maybe Rosie told you because she likes to complain quite a bit when I’m on my laptop whenever we watch movies.” That was actually an understatement.

“I think… I think she did once. What else do you work as?” At least now Niall seemed to not feel too awkward about asking questions anymore and Liam was quite glad about that, still making sure to keep an eye on the other three as they walked, relieved that his friends were playing babysitter for a little bit.

“For a website, just answering emails and stuff, it’s good because I can do it from home.” But it also meant that Liam had even less time when he did finally get home, but… it wasn’t like he had a choice.

“Oh god… I’d go crazy, I mean… just uni is enough for me, I do have to look for a part time job soon, but… “ He shook his head a bit, seemingly impressed even though Liam wouldn’t have expected that at all because like… it wasn’t that big of a deal, was it? “Do you… do you think you’d ever wanna go to uni too, like? If you… if you could? Like when she’s older, I mean.”

“Hmmm, maybe. I do take a few online classes for-“

“What?! How… how the hell do you have time for all of that?!” Liam couldn’t help but laugh at the face Niall pulled, the way his eyes had gone wide and he had almost stopped walking for a moment.

“I actually don’t have any time at all, but it’s not like working at the coffee shop and answering emails are hard jobs, so.” They didn’t even have a lot of costumers so Liam spent most of his time standing around and making sure his daughter didn’t get herself into any trouble. 

“Yeah, but… you do have another fulltime job as well, being a dad and all I mean that’s… I don’t think that, uh… that everybody could just… pull it off like that.” Had that been a compliment? Judging by his red cheeks and the way he refused to look anywhere but ahead, it probably had been.

“Thanks, Niall. It’s good though, I wouldn’t ever wanna change anything about it, like yeah, it gets stressful sometimes, but… she’s a great kid.” Just talking about her made Liam smile, like maybe he was one of those parents who always bragged about their children, but… it was true after all, he had the best little girl anyone could have ever asked for.

“Yeah… I still think it’s quite impressive… “ Niall added the second part only after some hesitation, suddenly playing with his fingers a bit and Liam had no idea why, but he suddenly liked the blonde a whole lot more. “Do you ever, like… I mean… since you always have to work and stuff… and since you have Rosie, but, uh… do you have like… a girlfriend or so? I’m just asking ‘cos… I mean, I can imagine it’d be pretty stressful and stuff, so… “

Oh, that had come a bit out of nowhere. “No, I don’t. Don’t really have a lot of time, I mean… I’ve been on dates and stuff since I’ve had Rosie, but nothing really serious… I barely ever introduced any of them to her, like properly, I don’t know… do you? Have a girlfriend I mean?”

“No, I… I’m kinda, uh… I’m not… into girls that much… but I don’t have a boyfriend either, so…“ Oh, that had been pretty stupid of Liam to ask, he had just assumed and now he felt slightly bad, like, he hadn’t meant to force Niall to tell him that.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked like that, Niall. But if it helps… I’m into guys as well, like… I don’t really mind, you know?” Well, that conversation had taken a bit of a weird turn. For some reason Liam saw Niall’s face brightening up at that and maybe he was just imaging this, but… he was probably just relieved that Liam had taken it so easily. “So now that you know pretty much everything about me… what about you?”

“Um… nothing much. Just been living at home all my life and pretty much been friends with the same people since primary school… and I always wanted to move once I was older and now that I’ve saved up enough money I finally decided to do it and… I came here.” Niall shrugged, obviously not thinking that any of this was worth talking about anyways, but Liam was really trying to get to know him here.

“What’d you wanna do once you graduate?” Harry and Louis both had these exact plans of where and how they wanted to work and Liam had never quite understood how they could be so sure about everything, but maybe everyone who went to uni was like this?

Or maybe not. “I have no idea actually… I’ve been wanting to do lots of things but I’m never sure and I just… I’m just hoping I won’t end up with a job I mindlessly hate, you know?”

“I’m sure you won’t, if you’ve got lots of things you want to do then you’re gonna end up liking one of them for sure.” Looking over, the blonde didn’t seem to be so certain about that at all, but he just shrugged and Liam didn’t even think before rising his hand and petting Niall’s back for a second, just like he would have done if he had been Harry or Louis. “Don’t worry too much about it now, you first of all gotta get fully settled in at uni and you still got a while left until you’re done, right? It’ll be fine.”

“Yeah… yeah, I know, I’m just… sometimes stressing out over nothing at all, I guess… thanks.” Niall gave Liam a small smile, his cheeks were still kinda pink though as Liam let his arm sink once more, returning the smile before quickly checking on Rosie once more. They had almost caught up to the others now, since they had stopped to look at the donkeys and Liam could hear Harry’s laugh pretty well already. 

“No problem, I-“

“Daddy!” Liam was interrupted when his daughter came running towards them full speed and before he could tell her to slow down so she wouldn’t fall, she was already right in front of him, grabbing a hold of his hand, trying to pull him with her. “Daddy, you have to look at the donkeys, one of them bit uncle Louis in the finger!”

“He probably deserved it, huh?” Laughing, Liam quickly made sure that Niall was coming as well when he went with his daughter, relieved that the younger boy didn’t seem to mind that their conversation had gotten cut off like that, he was smiling as well as he walked with them, only a step behind. “Did you feed the donkeys, babe?”

“Nooo, I don’t want them to bite me too… “ She explained with a pout and Liam was momentarily mad at Louis for scaring his daughter like that, but then again, the donkey probably hadn’t bitten Louis that hard at all either. 

“They won’t hurt you, munchkin, I promise, okay? See, they’re all gentle and-“

“ _Fuck_ these donkeys, man, I need a band aid.” Well, or maybe they weren’t that gentle.

“Louis! Stop swearing in front of my daughter.” Liam half growled, glad to see that Rosie didn’t seem like she had been listening at all, she was just holding onto Liam’s hand, half hiding behind him once they reached the donkeys, who actually didn’t look like they’d attack any of the visitors at all and yet Louis was there, holding up his finger with the tiniest bit of blood on it while Harry was just laughing at him. Sometimes it felt like Liam had three children and not just one. “There’s barely anything on your finger, but… I’ve got a band aid somewhere, wait… “

Just in case, Liam had brought a backpack, just because Rosie would sometimes get dirty, or hungry or hurt so he always had one with him whenever they went somewhere, probably like everybody else who had children as well. And somewhere at the bottom of this, there had to be Hello Kitty band aids for Louis. 

Rosie let go of Liam’s hand as he had to search through the backpack, having a whole lot of useless stuff in there so it took a while, and from the corner of his eyes he was still watching his daughter walking over to Niall instead, who was just stroking one of the donkeys and feeding it some of the food they had bought at the entrance, obviously not scared that his hand might have gotten torn off like certain other people. 

“Alright… here you go.” Handing the band aid over to Harry so someone could unwrap it for Louis, he quickly closed his backpack before turning around once more, about to ask Rosie to come and maybe try to touch the donkeys a little bit, but he stopped himself before he even brought out the first word.

“Hey… you wanna try feeding them as well, Rosie?” Liam watched Niall leaning down a bit to his daughter, who was now half hiding behind the blonde instead, shaking her head a bit. “They’re all nice, see? Louis just surprised them.”

“I don’t want them to bite me.” Rosie seemed scared, but she did walk around Niall a bit when the blonde got down so they could be at the somewhat same height, reaching into the food bag once more before holding out his hand to the animals, keeping it flat.

“Look, they’re not hurting me and their noses are all soft. Do you wanna try? I’ll show you how, come on.” This time, Rosie didn’t protest and while Liam could still hear Louis complaining about Harry putting the band aid on in the wrong way somewhere next to him, he was just watching his daughter with Niall now, how the blonde made sure to put some food in her hand as well before encouraging her to stretch out her am, doing it with her so she’d be less scared. “You feel how soft they are?”

“Yeah… it tickles.” She giggled before pulling her hand back once the donkey had eaten all of the food and Niall chuckled as well, wiping his palms on his jeans because they were probably wet. “Can I pet them?”

“Yeah, sure, just do it slowly, okay? So they know you’re gonna touch them.” Yet again, Niall showed her and she did just the same, a smile spreading on her lips that brightened Liam’s face as well just from watching. “Good job… “

When his daughter came running to Liam a minute later with the proudest look ever just to tell him that she wasn’t scared anymore of the donkeys, Liam decided that he was actually quite glad that Niall had come along as well. 

 

\------------------

 

Niall wasn’t quite sure how long he would be able to drag this out, but after being here for about two months now, he felt like he should have been brave enough to say something.

Things had gotten slightly better, the blonde had found some other people to talk to at uni, people who Louis had introduced him to, and though Niall wished he had had more classes with him and Harry because he considered them his friends by now, he was fine like this as well. At least if it came to life at uni, because outside of it, Niall had different problems.

Though he had been at Harry’s and Louis’ dorm and they had both been at his flat a few times, Niall had never really done anything with Liam outside of the coffee shop and that one time they had gone to the zoo a while back. Which made sense, the brunette man almost always had to work and stuff, but Niall knew that he had off on certain Saturday’s and every Sunday as well and yet he still hadn’t had the balls to actually ask Liam if they wanted to hang out like… by themselves, with Rosie of course, even though… the blonde wouldn’t have minded if it had just been him and Liam.

They had been talking a lot more, whenever Niall came to the coffee shop, which was a lot actually, sometimes with the other two but more often by himself. It was kinda nice, just having Rosie there drawing next to him and then Liam would come and sit with them as well, sometimes trying to help Niall figuring out what his homework was actually about. The blonde felt like they were friends, like, he knew a lot about Liam and vice versa, but that also meant that… that of course his silly crush hadn’t gone away. If anything, it had gotten worse.

Liam was great, like really, he was attractive, yes, but he was also really funny and understanding and Niall really admired him for being so determined and for taking complete control over his own life, for always being there for his daughter and at the same time still somehow having managed to stay just a normal 22-year-old on the other side. To make it even worse, he had actually told Niall that he was into boys, and yet the blonde still hadn’t had the courage to even ask Liam to hang out, not even on a date or anything, just simply… hang out like friends.

God, Niall really did like Liam a lot and usually he would have gone and just… asked him on a date or whatever, but for some reason, he felt more careful and shy around the older man, which wasn’t like himself at all, but… he just couldn’t seem to get the courage, like… Liam possibly wouldn’t ever even be interested in Niall _like that_ , and he had a daughter who was affected by his choices as well and just… it was complicated, to say the least.

“Niall!” Upon entering the coffee shop, Niall was greeted with the usual kinda welcome, having Rosie come running towards him, almost stumbling over a customer’s leg, and the blonde leaned down a bit because she had made it a habit to hug him hello and goodbye. Niall of course wouldn’t have initiated this himself, but she was a little girl and he had already noticed that she became clingy very easily.

“Hey, Rosie.” He smiled as he quickly hugged her before looking into her bright face, her hair in braids today and the blonde briefly wondered if there was anything Liam couldn’t do. “You look really nice today.”

“Thank you! Daddy did my hair, and look, there’s doggies on my shirt.” There were indeed dogs on her shirt, it was pretty cute, also the fact that Liam had put matching animal bobby pins into her hair, like, Niall was certain that the older man was actually perfect. 

“Wow, there really are. I bet everyone was really jealous of your braids today in kindergarten.” She only went there like 3 or 4 hours a day before Liam picked her back up, and the brunette had once told Niall that he worried about whenever she’d have to go to school, just because she always wanted to be with him and Niall hadn’t really known what to tell Liam other than that he had been quite the same as a child and that it had all turned out fine. Even if that had been kind of a lie, but the smile he had gotten from the older man afterwards had made Niall feel slightly less guilty. 

“Yeah they were, no one else’s daddy can do braids.” Niall didn’t doubt that just one second.

He let Rosie pull him along by his hand, to the usual table they sat at because apparently no one else ever wanted to sit there. Before Niall could sit down though, he flinched a bit as he felt a hand on his arm, not having noticed Liam coming out from the back, but the blonde’s nose immediately filled with the older man’s cologne and he felt himself relaxing as he turned around, Rosie’s hand slipping out of his. 

“Hey, Nialler.” Liam had gotten that nickname from Louis, who had started calling Niall all bunch of things, but out of Liam’s mouth paired with that gorgeous smile of his, they gave the blonde boy tingles. 

“Hi… “ The hug they shared was brief but really tight, Liam always hugged Niall in a way that almost caused the blonde to run short of breath, in a really good way though, because the older man hugged with his whole body, palm rubbing over Niall’s back and his warm breath hitting his neck shortly before he pulled away, grinning at him. 

“Everything alright? How was uni?” He always asked these things, and though Niall had never had anything tragic to tell, he was pretty sure that if he would have, Liam would have definitely tried to help him come up with a solution. 

“‘m good, it was fine. How’s work?” Not very busy as it seemed to be, the brunette man just shrugged, hands fully slipping off of Niall now and the younger boy found himself wishing they could have stayed like this a little bit longer. 

“Not much to do. You see these girls over there?” Liam had suddenly lowered his voice, not looking into the right direction but still at Niall and the blonde threw a quick look over his shoulder before nodding, slightly confused as to what Liam was on about. “They’ve been here for three bloody hours.”

“Sometimes I’m here for 5 hours.” Did Liam bother that?

“Yeah, but I like having you here.” Oh. “It’s just getting on my nerves a bit, ‘cos they’re yelling around the whole time, but… I can’t really say anything.”

“Want me to do it?” Not like Niall could have made them leave, but he would have done it, especially now that his heart was beating a little bit faster after what Liam had said. Did he really enjoy having Niall here?

“No, it’s fine, I’ll probably survive. Thanks though.” His dimple was showing as he smiled and for a moment, Niall almost forgot how to breathe. “Want anything to drink? Or eat? It’s on me.”

“No, I… I’m fine, thanks, Louis made me eat lunch with him before.” And then he had also asked Niall whether he was gonna go see Liam after uni and as the blonde had said yes, he had gotten the weirdest fucking look ever for that. Did he really come here that often?

“Okay. I’ll be there in a sec, yeah? Can you watch this little bugger for a moment?” Right, Rosie was still there as well, though she was just sitting at the table drawing, already having put her stuff there before Niall had even come apparently, the blonde still nodded immediately, feeling just a tiny bit proud that Liam trusted him to watch his daughter. Although, he probably just needed to go to the bathroom.

Niall watched the girls Liam had pointed out for a moment after sitting down next to Rosie, immediately knowing what the brunette man had been talking about because they definitely were being quite loud, and after standing around here for most of the day, the blonde could really imagine that it got annoying. 

Rosie told him about what she had done at kindergarten today and how she had met the cutest dog when they had been riding on the bus afterwards and Niall just smiled as he listened, only with one ear though because in his mind, he was really trying to figure out how to ask Liam whether he wanted to like, do something on the weekend. They got along well, right? They talked about private stuff as well and Niall knew for a fact that Liam kinda liked him, at least as a friend, so what was he so scared of anyways?

“Here, I brought you something anyways.” Once Liam came back, taking the chair opposite of Niall like he had done so often, he put down some coffee for the blonde and a plate full of fruits for his daughter, who just pulled a bit of a face at that. “Come on, bug, dinner is still a few hours away.”

“But I don’t like bananas, daddy.” She complained a bit, still taking one of the grapes though and popping it into her mouth, not really giving Niall a chance to thank Liam for always getting him something to drink even though he mostly said no and then at the end never charging him for it either, even when Niall tried to give him the money. 

“Good, because they are for me anyways. I bet Niall likes bananas though, they’re really good.” Right, that was Niall’s clue to eat one of the cut up pieces, even if he wasn’t hungry at all, but he still did it anyways, thinking that for only knowing each other two months, he and Liam already made a pretty good team.

“… are they really?” Rosie’s facial expression was critical as she watched Niall chew, even putting down her crayon though and the blonde made sure to make an extra excited face about them as he nodded, resisting the urge to speak with his mouth open though because he wasn’t exactly trying to be a bad role model here. 

“Just try one, for me?” Liam pushed the plate closer to her and Niall almost had to laugh as he heard the little girl sigh dramatically before reaching out, making a really big fuzz over nothing at all, but in the end, she did end up eating some bananas and the blonde felt really proud for having helped Liam to reach that accomplishment. “Do you have any homework again you need my help with?”

“Not today, I’m afraid. I do have to read some article though and I’m not quite sure how I’m gonna pretend like I understood everything but… “ Niall shrugged, watching Rosie coloring in a flower while still chewing on the bananas, goosebumps rising on his arms as Liam laughed. 

“Can’t say I’m jealous of you. Maybe Louis can help?” He probably could, but… Niall much rather complained about it. “Or Harry, he’s probably the better choice.”

“Yeah, I’ll ask them… on Monday or so. What… what’re you doing on the weekend?” Just asking this already made Niall feel anxious, quickly taking the cup Liam had placed in front of him so he wouldn’t have to see the older’s face as he waited, hoping that he hadn’t sounded like he was having any intentions.

“Nothing, I guess. Try to sleep in and then see whatever comes up. You?” Right, exactly what Niall had been hoping for.

“Nothing much either… “ Hesitating for a second, Niall took a quick breath, his heart speeding up just slightly as he opened his mouth once more, Liam’s neutral face giving him hope. “I… I was just asking because… I was wondering, if… if y-“

“Daddy, look!” And then this happened.

Almost immediately, Liam’s whole attention was on his daughter, which was understandable because she had squealed as if something terrible had happened, but in reality, she was just talking about the woman that had walked in, or her dog more like, and Liam rolled his eyes a little bit, already about to get up. “You have to ask if you’re allowed to touch him, okay? And be gentle.”

“Okay!” Climbing out of the chair, Rosie almost fell down as she half hopped over to the woman and Niall just watched Liam sighing before getting up as well, throwing a small smile at the blonde, who had mixed feelings of both relief and slight disappointment. There his chance had gone.

“I’ll be right back.” It wasn’t unusual for Liam having to get up and go serve some customer in the middle of the conversation, but today, Niall felt slightly more challenged as he tried to return the smile. “What’d you want to say before?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing, I… I’ll tell you later.” Or never.

“Okay.” With another smile, Liam turned around to greet the woman with the dog before going behind the counter while his daughter was on the floor playing with the dog, leaving Niall to sit by himself, a weird feeling settling in the pit of his stomach. Shit, why was it so hard bloody damn hard to ask Liam such a simple question?

Niall never really got a chance to ask anymore after that, because even though he stayed for quite a long while, it never really seemed to fit into the conversation and then Rosie was saying something or Liam had to get up and keep on working. And so by the end of the day, Niall was standing there next to the brunette man, watching him as he locked the door of the coffee shop, holding his sleeping daughter in his arms while the blonde felt a little bit like a failure. Great, another weekend of having to worry about this.

“I’m so glad this week is over… “ Liam sighed as he rearranged Rosie in his arms before slipping the keys into his coat pocket, slowly starting to walk into the direction they were both headed to and Niall nodded as he followed him, kinda glad that the brunette man was walking so slowly. 

“Me too… “ This wasn’t the first time Niall had stayed until Liam had off, he did know where the older man lived as well, not very far away from Niall at all and neither of them even had to take the bus, but for some reason the blonde felt the need to ask the brunette whether it’d be alright if he walked him home today. “I... I’ll walk you home, okay?”

“Okay.” The smile Liam threw at him was really soft, causing the usual tingles to spread in Niall’s stomach as he cleared his throat quietly, feeling just slightly stupid for his question. “You don’t live very far away, right? Just so, you know… don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“No, I’ll be fine, I… “ Was Liam genuinely worried about him? “I usually always walk anyways, it’s just the first time, I literally had no bloody idea where I was.”

“Yeah, it’s kinda hidden, isn’t it? At least explains why we barely have any customers. Not that I’m complaining, but… “ Chuckling softly so he wouldn’t wake Rosie, he changed his arm with which he was holding her, his free hand coming up to softly pull her thumb from her mouth, for the fifth time already since she had slept in before. “You don’t happen to have any idea how to keep her from sucking her thumb, do you?”

“Not really… I can’t even stop myself from biting my nails.” To proof it, Niall held up his hands in order to show Liam, more expecting a laugh if anything, but his smile got a little bit shaky when the older man’s eyes showed worry instead.

“That looks like it hurts… why’re you doing that?” A good question.

“I don’t know… ‘m kinda restless, I guess. I don’t even notice doing it most of the time, but like… I’ve gotten used to it by now, been doing it almost all my life.” Of course Niall knew that it had something to do with the fact that he was nervous, that it had gotten worse ever since he had moved here, but Liam didn’t have to know that, did he? “But about the thumb sucking… I don’t know, maybe you can put band aids on them or something? Or tell her that… that they’re gonna fall if she keeps doing it.”

“That sounds like it’d scar her for life.” Liam laughed while Niall felt himself blush, feeling stupid for having suggested that, but he had just been trying to help after all. “No, I don’t know, maybe you’re right, I’m gonna think of something. Should probably get her to not sleep in my bed anymore at least once a week first.”

“I slept in my parents’ bed a lot until I turned five or something and I still turned out normal, so… “ The blonde felt a bit stupid for trying to give Liam advise here, because well… what did he know about children?

“Did you?” Rising his eyebrows, Liam was obviously making fun of Niall, his lips already forming into a grin as the younger boy rolled his eyes, at the same time trying not to be too excited about them joking around.

“Oh, shut up, Li.” Of course Niall wouldn’t have said that could Rosie have heard him, but since she was asleep… 

“Li, huh?” Oh, right, maybe Niall shouldn’t have done that, now his cheeks were starting to get hot yet _again_.

“I…. I thought that Louis calls you that all the time, I… if you don’t-“

“No, it’s completely fine, Nialler.” Making sure to pronounce Niall’s nickname, Liam threw him a smile that caused the blonde to relax a tiny bit. It was fine, they were friends, right? He was allowed to call the older man nicknames as well. “You know… I’m kinda really glad that you got lost on your first day here.”

“… really?” Hearing Liam say this out of nowhere almost caused the blonde to run face forward into a street light, noticing last second though before he could make a huge idiot out of himself, his heart beating twice as fast as normally making this bad enough. 

“Of course. I mean… I guess Louis would have at some point befriended you anyways and then we would have met but… I don’t know, I’m glad we’re friends. And Rosie really likes you as well, I mean, she likes most people walking in but… not like this, usually.” Liam’s voice just sounded casual, luckily not really looking at Niall because even though it was getting dark, the blonde was sure that the older man could have still seen his red glowing cheeks. Oh my god, had he just really said all these things?!

“Unless they have dogs.” Niall added, trying to relax a bit by adding a joke and though Liam laughed, he kinda felt the need to continue, like… Liam had just called Niall his friend, so… so shouldn’t he be allowed to ask whether they wanted to… hang out, maybe? “No, but, uh… I’m really glad too. Not only because… because I didn’t know anybody, but… “

“Yeah, I know what you mean. You fit in really well with us, it’s like… like we’ve known you for a lot longer somehow.” Okay, this was Niall’s chance, the brunette man obviously enjoyed spending time with him to some extent, the blonde just needed to calm the fuck down.

“Yeah, uh… actually, I… since we’re talking about this, I mean, not really, but… I was just, uh… wondering if like… if you wanted to hang out, like… on the weekend or so? With Rosie of course, but… I mean, Harry and Louis have both seen my flat and I… I thought maybe we… we could do something, like… you and me and… and Rosie.” Oh god.

There was a pause where Niall almost died, in his head already planning a million ways to kill himself out of embarrassment later on, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his jeans as he almost bit his lip bleeding, the silence almost killing him as they kept on walking like this. And then this happened. “Sure, I’ve actually been meaning to ask you that, but… I thought maybe you wanted to relax on the weekend, and not have to play babysitter. But… you could also come upstairs with us right now, I mean it’s only 6, right? Unless you have something else planned but I’m making spaghetti for dinner, so… “

Almost instantly, Niall half tripped over his own feet, being able to kinda save it though, not managing to calm down in any way, but suddenly, there was a huge ass grin spreading on his face that he couldn’t have held back even if he had wanted to, almost sounding breathless as he answered way too quickly. “Yeah, no, I mean… I don’t have anything planned, I… if I’m not bothering you guys, I… sure.”

“Okay, good. Still need someone to help me do the dishes afterwards, that’s why.” It was a joke, obviously, because Liam was smiling this really soft smile as their eyes met for a second and Niall was pretty sure he would burst with happiness any second. Damn, he hadn’t thought it’d go _this_ well.

 

\-------------

 

Liam hadn’t really planned on asking Niall to stay for dinner, but when the blonde had wanted them to hang out, the brunette had just sorta thought, why not? He did like Niall a lot, they got along well and Rosie absolutely adored him, so obviously Liam was happy to have Niall stay over, especially because they hadn’t really seen each other outside the coffee shop a lot.

There was something about the blonde Liam couldn’t exactly put his finger on, something that made him different from the older man’s other friends, not in a bad way at all, just… he felt really comfortable around Niall and the feeling seemed to be very mutual because there barely seemed to be two days in a row where the blonde didn’t show up after uni, when he didn’t hug Liam a bit too tightly, both when he said hi and when he left. Maybe this was just because he was so glad that he had found friends here, but then again… Liam never saw him doing any of that with Louis or Harry, the other two not at all describing Niall as someone who’d blush around them when they were alone or get nervous while asking them to hang out, so either Liam was imaging all of this or… or Niall really did only behave like this around him.

It’d be a lie to say that it didn’t get the brunette man a little bit excited, even if he felt guilty for it because… well because he had a daughter, who would be affected by any choice Liam made and sometimes that fact made him pretty careful about… pretty much everything.

“I’m gonna go bring her to bed, I’ll be right back, yeah?” Rosie had only woken up after Liam had already finished making dinner with Niall’s help, showing the blonde around the flat a bit even though it was quite small, but the younger boy seemed to be pretty impressed anyways.

“Okay… I can start with the dishes meanwhile.” It didn’t seem like an offer because Niall just smiled, immediately getting up as Liam lifted his once again sleeping daughter into his arms, glad that she was being so tired out, not even having wanted to really eat something, because sometimes it could be quite a challenge to get her to bed. 

“You really don’t have to though.” When Liam had joked before about needing someone to do the dishes, it had obviously not been serious at all, but Niall didn’t seem to mind at all as he cleared the table and who would the older man have been to say no?

“I got it, don’t worry.” Niall’s face was still happy, had been the whole time ever since Liam had asked him to stay for dinner, and while they had been chatting over cooking, making Rosie laugh while they had eaten and maybe… maybe Liam should have asked him to stay over much sooner.

“Daddy… “ Rosie whined just as Liam entered the bathroom with her, quickly having collected her pajamas from her room before, already feeling bad that he couldn’t just put her to bed and let her sleep. 

“It’s okay, bug, I’m here… can you wake up for me for a second? We gotta brush your teeth and change your clothes and then you can go back to sleep, yeah?” Turning the lights on with his elbow, Liam felt his heart sink a little bit as his daughter leaned back while rubbing her eyes, barely being able to keep them open afterwards as he kissed her forehead before gently attempting to put her down. “Come here, let’s put on your pajamas, they’re a lot more comfortable.”

The little girl barely helped, letting Liam do all the work as he undressed her before putting on her teddy bear print onesie, pulling all the bobby pins out of her hair that he had put there this morning and opening up her braids, even under a tiny bit of protest. “I wanna leave them in, daddy.”

“I’ll make new ones tomorrow, yeah? But they won’t be comfortable for sleeping, baby.” He explained, tickling her stomach a bit so she’d giggle before picking her up to sit her down next to the sink because she was too small to reach up all the way for spitting out the toothpaste. “Alright… here you go. Three minutes, yeah?”

Of course Liam could have helped her brushing her teeth, but she was 4, she needed to be able to do it by herself so even though the brunette man had to step in once a while when she wouldn’t do it properly, he still put on toothpaste onto her ninja turtles toothbrush before handing it to her, making sure to stand right in front of her so she wouldn’t fall. “Daddy… did Niall go home?”

“No, he’s in the kitchen, love. If you brush your teeth really well you can go say goodnight, deal?” For a moment, Liam had considered lying, just because he knew her face would light up like that and possibly lead to her wanting to stay awake, but she just nodded eagerly before shoving the toothbrush into her mouth, making Liam smile as he continued to brush some hair out of her face, trying to untangle it a little bit. 

Of course, it took way longer than three minutes, mostly because Rosie was talking in between and Liam was kinda anxious about her not getting her teeth that clean, but in the end, he still lifted her off of the counter and allowed her to go say goodnight to Niall, hoping that the blonde wouldn’t get too startled by having a child almost jumping at him.

“You’ll come right back, okay? I’ll wait in your room.” Just to make sure that this was clear, Liam let his daughter go as soon as she had nodded, sighing a bit because of how fast she was running off but deciding that there was no need to scold her anymore now. At least if she was running, she’d be more tired again afterwards. 

Liam could faintly hear their voices as he put away Rosie’s clothes, knowing that she was staying way longer than she was supposed to, but it was alright, Niall was really doing amazing with her even though he had had zero practice and honestly, the brunette was pretty impressed by that. Like, yeah, Louis was good at this too, but he had so many sisters, and Harry as well but he’s known Rosie ever since she was little, whereas Niall… Niall was just a normal 21-year-old having moved out of home for the first time ever.

“There you are, did you tell Niall goodnight?” The brunette had just been sitting on Rosie’s bed as he had waited for her to come back, pleased to see both the smile on her face as she nodded but also see her yawning as she rubbed both her eyes with her knuckles. “C’mere, let’s get you tucked up into bed.”

Throwing back the blanket for her, Liam made sure to watch as she climbed onto mattress, a bit clumsily as always when she was tired, not whining or complaining like she had done so often as the brunette tucked her in tightly, making sure to get her stuffed dog from the end of the bed because she wouldn’t have stayed asleep for very long without it. “Daddy… can you tell me a story?”

“Sure, sweetie, but you gotta close your eyes first, okay?” That was how their night usually ended, or hers more like, even though sometimes she’d put up a little bit of a fight at bed time, it was getting significantly better and Liam kind of felt really proud. Surely, he had the most well behaved and smartest little girl on the planet. “What story do you want, baby?”

“Hmm… I want the one… the one with the bunnies.” She half mumbled, her eyes closed, hand gripping tightly onto her stuffed dog while Liam just looked down at her with soft smile on his face, fingers slowly brushing over her cheek and through her hair, making sure not to disturb her from drifting off when she was clearly already so close to falling back asleep.

“Once upon a time… “ Liam started, keeping his voice soft and soothing, adding a few things to the story as he went along because he had made it up himself a few nights ago and couldn’t quite remember it anymore, not even having to go on for 5 minutes before he knew that Rosie had fallen asleep, still waiting for a few seconds before he dared to lean down and kiss her forehead. “Sleep tight, princess… I love you more than anything in the world.”

Rosie had a nightlight that Liam flicked on before half tiptoeing out of the room, throwing another look back at his sleeping daughter before keeping the door a few centimeters open because she didn’t want it to be fully closed. Usually she had a deep sleep though, but of course there were these nights where she’d wake up from nightmares, or generally just didn’t want to be left alone and then she’d come into Liam’s bed and the brunette had yet to figure out whether he needed to learn how to say no. Then again, it would have probably broken his heart.

“Hey… I’m sorry I took so long, you… you already did _all_ of the dishes?” It’d be a lie to say that Liam wasn’t highly impressed as entered the kitchen just to find it all clean, with Niall sitting at the table, putting down his phone as Liam entered with a little bit of guilt bubbling up inside of him. He really hadn’t meant for Niall having to do this. “You really didn’t have to do that, Nialler, thank you.”

“’s fine, don’t worry ‘bout it, you had more important stuff to do anyways.” Well… “I… I guess I should, um… go now.”

“No way, you just only got here like an hour ago. I mean, unless you have something important to do, but… I wouldn’t mind if you stayed.” Niall hadn’t seemed like he had wanted to leave in any way and honestly, Liam also didn’t want him to, it was nice having him here to chat now, seeing how much his face brightened up at that. “Want a beer?”

“I… sure.” Obviously, that question threw him a little bit off track, causing Liam to chuckle as he went over to his fridge. “I didn’t…. didn’t think you’d drink.”

“I don’t really, it’s mostly for when someone comes over but… one beer won’t exactly make me drunk, so.” Well, it possibly made him slightly tipsy just because he never drank anything at all, except sometimes when Rosie was in bed already, when he was pretty sure that she wouldn’t wake up until he felt completely normal again. “Here you go.”

“Thanks… “ Niall still seemed unsure as he took the bottle from the older’s hand, watching him carefully as Liam sat down opposite of him with another one, having to chuckle a bit over the blonde’s still surprised face. Was it that weird that Liam drank alcohol?

“You alright?” Liam made sure to check as he took a sip, smiling a bit at the younger boy. This was kinda nice to be honest, sure, there was work Liam could have been getting done right now, however… he could very well do that on another day, right? He always worked ahead anyways.

“Yeah, just… I don’t know… I was just surprised, is all. Not that it’s bad to drink a beer once a while, but y’know… I’m a bit relieved though.” Relieved?

“Wait, why?” For a moment, Liam almost thought about having to get worried, but then he saw Niall’s face brightening up a bit as he drank from his bottle as well.

“Just because… you’re so mature… not all the time just when you have to be but… I like it when it’s like this too.” Oh. Shit, that was kinda cute of him to say, wasn’t it? Niall probably knew that as well because he immediately looked down as Liam grinned, feeling himself being put at ease as well because the blonde was definitely right.

“Yeah, me too. Do you… wanna watch a movie or something?” Just because sitting here maybe wasn’t all that comfortable, plus Niall’s smile immediately grew wider, indicating that Liam had definitely asked the right question here. 

“Sure, if we don’t wake up Rosie or anything.” He instantly made sure to add, slight worry, and for some reason, that caused Liam to feel a bit warmer inside. 

“Don’t worry, she usually sleeps like a rock until I decide I wanna go to bed as well.” The older man joked as he moved to get up. “What’d you wanna watch? Because if you don’t have any requests then… “

“We could watch Batman?” Niall asked, as if he had read the older’s thoughts and Liam almost stumbled as he looked at the blonde, seeing a huge smirk on his face that immediately had him rolling his eyes. Right, of course. “Rosie told me. Are you gonna be mad if I tell you that I’ve never watched it before?”

“What, _never_?! I’m shocked, Niall. We have to change that immediately, c’mon.” Sometimes Liam would find himself doing that, talking to Niall as if he was somewhat a child as well, and he knew that Louis and Harry would have gotten really annoyed, but for some reason, it always made the blonde giggle and it’d be a lie to say that his laugh didn’t cause goosebumps to rise all over Liam’s arms. It’s just… he had a really nice laugh, very addicting as well. “I’ll pop it in and then I can go look if I find some popcorn if you want? And something else maybe.”

“That’d be great, I love popcorn.” Who would have thought? “I might never wanna go to the movies again after this, I’ll probably always come over whenever I wanna watch something.”

“Well, you certainly can, but usually we’ve got Barbie and Disney playing, so if you’re into that… “ As they entered the living room, Liam gestured to the couch, making sure Niall knew that he could sit down before closing the door that lead to the hallway, smiling over how comfortable the blonde seemed to have gotten here by now.

“I actually wouldn’t mind at all, I like kids’ movies.” It didn’t even sound like a joke or anything, even as Liam threw him a very unbelievable look from where he was putting in the movie. Well, Niall wasn’t confronted with it on a daily basis and he probably hadn’t seen Frozen 80 days in a row so it made sense.

“I’ll give you a call next time then so you can take over for me.” Actually didn’t sound like a bad idea at all, like, not that the blonde would be there instead of Liam, but… just having him there as well surely would have made all of this a lot funnier. “Alright, here’s the remote, don’t start without me, I gotta make sure you’ll get all the details.”

“Don’t worry, Li, I wouldn’t dare.” Niall was just laughing again, clearly being in a pretty great mood and thinking about that it probably was because Liam had asked him to stay _and_ to watch a movie was actually quite a great feeling. He had always thought that anybody his age would find all of this really boring, staying in on a Friday night, eating dinner with his daughter and watching a movie at home, but for some reason, the blonde was beaming as if though it was the best night he had ever had. 

Niall was a great person to watch movies with, he didn’t interrupt, only to ask questions that Liam happily answered, and he wasn’t on the phone all the time like Harry and he didn’t get the popcorn and snacks all over the couch like Louis. The blonde seemed genuinely intrigued by the movie, and maybe it was dumb, but Liam was just really, really happy that someone enjoyed the same things as him.

By the end of it, they were both pretty tired and for a second, Liam considered asking Niall whether he wanted to stay overnight, but then he remembered that he had work to catch up on tomorrow because he hadn’t done it today and he really wouldn’t have wanted to kick the blonde out in the morning. 

They had sat quite close on the couch without really touching, but somehow Liam still felt a little bit cold as they got up after Niall had come to the conclusion that he should probably leave while the credits were rolling. This time though, he didn’t seem like he would be too sad if the brunette man didn’t ask him to stay once more, so even though Liam felt a bit weird about wishing it wasn’t that late already, he kept his mouth shut while walking the blonde to the door.

“Thank you… for dinner and everything, I… it was fun.” Well, _fun_ could mean a lot of things, but judging by the blonde’s smile and his slightly pink cheeks, Liam had nothing to worry about at all. Honestly, that night couldn’t have been any better.

“No problem, Ni, you gotta come over again soon, maybe on a weekend or so, so Rosie won’t be too sad when she has to go to bed.” Then again… Liam also quite enjoyed having Niall to himself.

“Yeah, sure, just… just tell me when and I’ll probably have time anyways.” His laugh was only slightly nervous and the brunette man wouldn’t have noticed if it hadn’t been for the blonde suddenly rising his hand to start chewing on his thumb nail as he stepped through the open front door into the hallway, turning around though and hesitating for a moment, almost unnoticeably taking a quick breath. “I… I actually, uh… wanted to ask you something else.”

“Sure, what?” Liam honestly had no idea, but he felt kinda curious as he was leaning in the doorframe, not liking the fact that Niall wasn’t able to look into his eyes anymore, as if he was scared Liam might get mad or something.

“Just, uh… it’s fine if you say no, like… I just wanted to… check, I guess, whether you would… like, I don’t wanna make this weird at all and if you don’t want to then just tell me and… and we’ll forget about it, just… do you maybe wanna… “ Another huge breath and the older man already felt his eyes growing wide, like… he couldn’t be asking this, could he? “Go on a, uh… date with… with me?”

“I… “ The brunette felt kinda speechless, like yeah, he had been thinking about this, knew that Niall probably liked him and the feeling was more than mutual, just… it still came a bit out of nowhere. Usually the people Liam went on a date with were people he had asked himself or Louis tried to set him up with and mostly all of them were slightly taken aback by the fact that he had a daughter, but Niall… Niall knew pretty much everything and his cheeks were red like a tomato and his breath was going uneasy, as if he was really scared of Liam saying no. Oh god. 

“If you… if you don’t want to then-“

“No, no, I… it’s not that, just… can I… can I maybe… think about it? I’m not saying no, just… you know because I have Rosie and… “ That made things a whole lot more complicated, even though Liam’s stomach was kinda doing gymnastics at the same time, he was forcing himself to say these things, not freak out over Niall’s face falling a little bit because this was the right thing to say. He needed to think about this, like genuinely.

“Yeah, that’s… that’s fine, just… just let me know, okay? Rosie can come too of course, if you… if you decide you wanna go… “ This was actually quite terrible, having to watch Niall almost biting his fingers bleeding and really, all Liam wanted to do was just tell him that yes, he’d love to go on a date with him and see what would happen, that yes, he really did like the blonde, but somehow, he was still too surprised as to make a good decision right now, so he would have to postpone that. Probably until 10 minutes later because he’d definitely be lying awake in bed by then.

“Yeah, sure, I will, Niall, I… don’t think it’s because I don’t want to, I just… “ Like, just hypothetically, if this would turn into something serious, Liam would have to be very, very careful. He had a daughter to think of, who, no doubt, would have been more than happy about Niall spending more time with them, but… if it didn’t end well, she’d be the first one after Liam to be affected by it as well. 

“It’s okay, Li, I understand… I… I’ll better go now. Thanks again… “ Hesitating, Niall luckily did decide to go for the hug in the end, a little bit quicker than usually, but for some reason, Liam still felt himself getting hot at having the blonde’s body pressed against his. 

“You’re welcome, Nialler… good night. And text me when you get home, okay?” Just to make sure he’d be fine, because Liam definitely wouldn’t be able to relax until he did, had Rosie not been in her bed sleeping, the brunette would have definitely walked Niall home.

“Yeah… sleep well.” There was a smile on his face as they pulled apart, but it didn’t really reach his eyes and god knows what was getting into Liam, maybe the fact that Niall wasn’t perfectly happy made him lose his mind but he leaned forward without really thinking about it, hearing the blonde gasp just slightly as the brunette quickly kissed his cheek. Now Niall wasn’t the only one blushing anymore at least. 

“Bye, Ni…” Was all Liam could choke out afterwards, kinda surprised by his own actions but not regretting them at all, because well… he might have wanted to do this a few times before already. 

“Bye… “ Niall was clearly shocked as he turned around to leave after throwing a very intense look at the older man, but as Liam remained in the doorframe to watch the blonde walking out of the building, he was pretty sure he saw the younger boy rising his hand just to touch his cheek and making the brunette smile.

Damn it, who would have ever thought that he’d manage to fall for somebody that quickly after always trying to take it as slowly as possible?

 

\-------------------

 

All week long, Niall was more than anxious, he felt like crap when he got home after eating dinner at Liam’s and watching a movie with him, but then again… the brunette had kissed his cheek, definitely on full purpose, and he didn’t seem to be the type to give somebody false hopes. Of course he needed to think this through, of course he needed to make sure he really wanted to go on a date with Niall, just… it didn’t exactly make Niall feel all that great.

He didn’t know why he had just blurted out with it, totally randomly, but the night had gone so well and like… Niall had been wanting to ask Liam for so long that it had just kinda bursted out of him. They knew each other since two months, had spent lots of time together, so Niall hadn’t asked too soon, had he? He hadn’t asked Liam to marry him or whatever, he simply wanted to go on a date with him and see how it’d go because he really liked the brunette, that was all.

Of course Niall wasn’t really able to stay away from the coffee shop, he didn’t wanna like, play hurt and disappointed, but it kinda was obvious that though Rosie would always be very happy to see him and sit with him, Liam kinda wasn’t coming to sit down with them that often and honestly, the blonde almost thought he had messed it up. Like, at some point he even considered asking Louis or Harry whether Liam had said anything to them, but… he didn’t quite wanna embarrass himself to the bones just yet. 

On Friday, so exactly one week later, the blonde had kinda come to thinking that this was done already, that Liam wasn’t actually going to agree and that he had just been trying to tell Niall in a way that wouldn’t hurt him too much. And even though it did, Niall felt like he was very good at pretending like it didn’t affect him, it’s not like they had had anything going on, they could just go back to being friends probably, if they’d let some time pass. It’d be fine. 

The sleepless nights and hours of overthinking kinda told a different story though. 

“Look, Niall!” Rosie kinda drew Niall out of his thoughts again, holding up a picture she had been drawing on for like half an hour now, the biggest and proudest smile on her face that instantly put the blonde into a better mood as well. 

“Oh wow, you finished it, good job. Who’s that?” He pointed at something on the paper that kinda looked like an animal, but he wasn’t 100% sure and he didn’t really wanna make her sad by saying anything wrong or so. 

“That’s the cat I saw yesterday when daddy brought me to kindergarten, isn’t it sooo cute?” She exaggerated her voice, making Niall laugh just from watching. For a while, he had been drawing with Rosie, but he had already been here for like an hour and Liam hadn’t even done much more other than saying hi to him, so really… maybe it would’ve been appropriate to leave by now. No idea why he kept coming back if Liam obviously… needed some distance, but… it wasn’t a crime to keep up your hopes now was it? “Here, I drew it for you.”

“Did you really? Thank you so much, Rosie, I’m gonna put this up right when I get home, okay? Right next to the other pictures you’ve drawn for me.” Niall honestly meant it, he really did keep them in his room, not having space for all of them at once, but he was definitely trying his hardest because this was literally the cutest thing ever.

“Okay! Can I come over one time and look at them?” Her voice was all innocent, kinda excited, and though Niall felt a bit of a sting because he knew it’d never happen because he didn’t even know if he’d come back here after today, he still nodded, keeping up the biggest smile he could manage as he ruffled her hair. 

“Of course you can, babe.” Carefully putting the picture she had given to him into his backpack, not even having bothered today to take out his laptop and pretend to work on his homework, because… he hadn’t really planned on staying for that long in case Liam still hadn’t started acting normal again. Clearly, he hadn’t. “Hey, Rosie… I think I’m gonna need to head home now, I… I have some stuff to do.”

“Oh… are you gonna come visit us at home later and play with me? Or tomorrow? I have a new Barbie, uncle Harry got it for me, it’s so pretty you have to look at it.” Oh god, why’d she make it so damn hard for Niall to just go? 

“I… I’ll talk to your dad about it, okay?” Or probably not. “C’mon, let’s… let’s collect your stuff.”

Rosie wasn’t allowed out here on her own without Niall sitting there as well on a busy day like right now, because Liam couldn’t keep an eye on her when he had so much customers to serve and yeah, maybe that made it a bit more understandable why Liam hadn’t come over but… he had been doing this two days ago as well when literally no one had been here at all. Niall really didn’t wanna make him feel uncomfortable by hanging around here all the time. 

Once Niall had made sure that Rosie could carry all of her stuff on her own and given her a hug, he watched her making her way to the back, just to be sure she’d be safe and that Liam saw where she went. For the split of a second, their eyes met just as the blonde rearranged his backpack, quickly turning his head away as he noticed, cheeks flushing a tiny bit as he walked towards the door. This was stupid, they were friends and now Niall couldn’t even look at the older man anymore without feeling weird?

Needless to say, Niall’s mood was pretty down as he pushed open the door and was met by cool air, helping a tiny bit to clear his head. Still though, now he had a whole weekend ahead of him and not that much work for uni to keep him distracted, maybe Harry or Louis would want to hang out since they didn’t seem to know about what had happened between Niall and Liam, but… chances were high they would eventually find out and then they’d be on Liam’s side obviously. Great, right after finding nice people, Niall had scared them off right away again. Since when was he so bad at making friends?!

The blonde had barely stepped out on the sidewalk, just stopping for the tiniest second as he thought about maybe going somewhere else instead of just home, hearing the door opening once more behind him and he didn’t turn around, just thinking it was someone else leaving. Turned out that he was wrong about that and also a lot more easily scared than he had thought.

“Niall, wait you… you forgot something.” As Liam touched his arm, Niall almost stumbled backwards, eyes going wide as he turned around on the spot, scanning the older’s face, not being able to believe that he had really just come after him for… wait, he hadn’t forgotten anything.

“What?” Was all Niall asked, confused and shocked at the same time, hating the fact that his heart was speeding up at seeing the tiniest smile form on Liam’s face.

“Here. I gotta go back in.” There were tons of people lining up inside, and yet Liam was here, holding a cup of coffee towards Niall and the blonde took it without even thinking about it, none of his questions answered though. What the hell? Was Liam trying to, like… make up for his behavior with this or?

“But I… I didn’t even… I don’t even-“

“Sorry, Ni.” The look on the brunette man’s face was apologetic, but there was something like a grin on his face as he turned around to go back inside, just leaving Niall out there on the sidewalk with his mouth a little bit dropped open, his fingers starting to get hot from holding the cup. Well, that had been fucking weird. 

Of course Niall considered staying, waiting until Liam had more time so maybe they could… talk about this, but then again, he had probably just been trying to be nice or something. In a really strange fucking way that Niall didn’t understand at all because he was just really hurt and regretted ever having asked Liam to go on a bloody date and a cup of coffee wasn’t gonna solve any of this. Not like it was Liam’s fault anyways, he didn’t even have to apologize or anything, just… the blonde had just still been hoping. 

About two minutes later while Niall was walking down the sidewalk, as slowly as somehow possible so time would pass by faster and while trying not to think too hard about anything related to Liam, he absently took a sip from the cup he was still holding, his face scrunching up a bit when he realized that it was hot chocolate instead. Somehow automatically, the blonde looked down.

For a moment, Niall smiled thinking Rosie had drawn something on his cup, but then he quickly realized that she would have had no time to do that at all and as he moved his finger from where someone had done something with black marker, his heart almost stopped beating as he read the words written there. Oh.

 

_tomorrow, 6 pm? xx_

 

It almost seemed too good to be true, Niall honestly had to stop walking, rereading the short message over and over again before his cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling so damn much. This was like, one of those damn cheesy coffee shop stories, only that… only that it was actually happening to Niall right fucking now and he could have cried both from relief and happiness.

Hold shit, he was gonna go on a date with _Liam_.

 

\---------------------

 

“I always knew you liked him.” Louis made sure to tell Liam for the tenth time, even though he had only gotten here 20 minutes ago and yet it already made the other man roll his eyes as he slipped on his shoes. “It’s kinda cute, I feel like I’m sending off my child on their first date. Only… it’s not your first date and I’m actually babysitting your own child while you’re gone and I’m not giving you a curfew. By the way, if you wanna stay at his place over night that’s fine, me and Haz will find something to sleep on in here.”

“I won’t, but thanks.” Honestly, Liam had no idea what would happen, but he was pretty sure he wouldn’t stay at Niall’s over night, they were friends but… this was still a first date and Liam’s heart was beating ridiculously fast, he hadn’t really… talked to Niall that much during the last week, had had to wrap his head around all of this. But yesterday, when he had seen the boy leave with that beaten puppy look on his face, Liam knew he would have forever regretted not saying yes, even if it had gotten him a few pissed off customers for mindlessly storming outside. “Rosie, come here for a second, yeah?”

Harry was sprawled out on the living room floor with Liam’s daughter, playing with her stuffed animals, and the girl immediately jumped up at Liam’s voice, coming running over to him with a grin on her face. She loved having Louis and Harry over to watch her, which was why Liam had decided to ask them instead of his neighbors, because otherwise, she might have been trying to get him to take her on the date with them. Even if that had resulted in a few very smart and inappropriate remarks, mostly from Louis’ side. 

“You’re gonna be a good girl, right? And go to bed when uncle Harry and Louis tell you to?” Just to make sure. Liam had gotten down so they’d be on the same height, grabbing Rosie’s hands as he looked her in the eyes, so she _had_ to listen to what he was saying. “And brush your teeth really well, three minutes, remember?”

“Yeah, I know, daddy.” It was obvious that she wanted to go back to playing, not standing still even though Liam was holding onto her, pulling her in a bit so he could kiss her forehead. “Can I stay up longer tonight? Pleaseee?” 

“You can stay up 30 minutes longer, okay? But go to bed when Louis and Harry tell you to, alright? Promise you’ll listen to whatever they say?” Usually she was being very good whenever someone babysat her, also in kindergarten, but Liam was just trying to make sure here, partly also because he always was nervous about leaving her with someone else, even his best friends. 

“I promise.” Rosie gave him a pinkie promise before unexpectedly wrapping her arms around his neck since he was almost kneeling on the floor and Liam hugged her back immediately, closing his eyes for a moment, hand resting on the back of her head. God, maybe he should have taken Niall’s suggestion serious about bringing her along. “When are you gonna come back?”

“I’ll be back when you’re already asleep, bug, but you’ll see me in the morning, okay? I promise, it’ll go by a lot faster than you think and you have uncle Louis and Harry to play with, right? And I told them they’ll have to watch whatever movie you want with you, yeah?” Well, not _every_ movie, but every kids’ movie they owned. “Be a good girl, okay? I love you so much, baby.”

“Love you too, daddy… “ They shortly kissed on the lips as Rosie pulled back a bit, giggling when Liam blew raspberries on the side of her neck before letting her go with a smile.

“Alright, go back to playing, I think Harry’s already getting bored without you.” He was still lying on the floor actually, inspecting the stuffed animals scattered around him and Liam was really glad that both his best friends were so bloody good with kids. “I’ll see you tomorrow, bug.”

Watching her run over to Harry once more, Liam stood back up, quickly checking his pockets for his phone and wallet before putting on his jacket, all the while feeling Louis’ eyes on him. It wasn’t hard to guess what they’d be talking about tomorrow. “Are you gonna wait for him to come up here?”

“No, I’ll meet him downstairs ‘cos I wanna save him from being investigated by you.” Louis was the type to suddenly pretend to be all serious and question Niall’s intentions with Liam or some shit just to have a laugh and the brunette was way too nervous to wait up here anyways. “Thanks for watching her.”

“No problem, Li. Have fun, alright? He’s a good guy, I like him.” Well, Liam had probably spent a whole ton more time with Niall than Louis, but he still liked hearing that anyways, the fact that Niall was friends with his own friends making all of this somehow a lot easier. And it’d also make it worse in case something went wrong. 

“Yeah… me too.” Maybe a bit too much than appropriate for only knowing him two months, like, this had literally never happened to Liam, but maybe it was a good sign? “I’ll get going now… call me immediately if anything happens?”

“Sure, Payno. We all know she’s gonna immediately cry for you if anything would happen, proper daddy girl.” The other man just grinned as Liam rolled his eyes, still allowing Louis to give him half a hug though before half shoving him towards the door. “Now go, Li.”

“Yeah, yeah… ‘m already gone. Bye everybody.” He briefly waved into the room while stepping into the hallway, keys in one hand, hearing a ‘Bye, daddy!’ from Rosie and a ‘Have fun’ from Harry right before the door fell shut behind him, plunging him into silence.

This would be fine, right? He had thought this through for a whole week, had decided that if this would turn into something more serious, that they’d take it slow, make sure Rosie wouldn’t get too used to Niall just yet, just to be sure, like… nothing could happen, right? It’d be fine, this wasn’t Liam’s first date, but… but judging by how fast his heart was beating, it might as well have been.

 

\---------------------

 

Niall was so nervous, he couldn’t even stand still for one single second, playing with his fingers, pulling on his clothes as he thought about that maybe he should have worn something else, considering going up because it was already one minute after 6 and Liam still wasn’t here, but… he needed to be calm, he totally got this, this was-

“Hey.” When the door opened and Liam stepped out, the blonde almost had a heart attack, immediately feeling his cheeks turning red as he stared at the older man, kinda feeling his knees getting a bit weak because Liam just looked so fucking good and… shit, Niall should have definitely worn something else. 

“Hi, uh… you look nice.” Bloody gorgeous, more like.

“You too.” Liam smiled, he didn’t seem nervous at all and that just made Niall even more anxious, still going in for the hug though because he hadn’t hugged Liam in like… a week, and just a bit over a day ago he had been thinking the brunette man would never even wanna talk to him again and now… now they were on a _date_. Like, of course Niall had immediately texted Liam after he had read what he had written on the cup, having to wait a bit for his answer because the brunette man had had to work, but that was completely fine because Niall had been on a high anyways. Well, that had been until his nerves had kicked in, keeping him restless almost the whole night and today. “So… where’d you wanna go?”

“Um… I don’t know, I… “ Right, Niall had never really planned what they’d be doing on their date, he still wasn’t THAT familiar with this city and also… it had taken so much courage to just ask Liam to go that he had kinda forgotten to plan anything at all.

“We could go get something to eat, if you’re hungry?” The older man suggested, still with the same warm smile on his face and Niall wanted to die, but he nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets as he tried to calm himself down. Great, five minutes in and he was already embarrassing himself. “And we could watch a movie later as well if you want, uh… the new Marvel movie is out.”

“Is that why you said yes?” Niall had to laugh as they started walking into whatever direction Liam led them, because honestly, Niall had no bloody idea where they even going. 

“No, I just… thought maybe you wanted to see it too.” As he threw Niall a grin, the blonde felt himself relaxing a tiny little bit, like, if things stayed this normal and as if last week hadn’t happened, there was a possibility that maybe this wouldn’t be the last date they went on. 

“Sure, we can do that.” Honestly, Niall would have said yes to anything at all Liam wanted to do, partly because he felt bad for not having thought of something himself, but also because he was pretty eager to make Liam happy.

“Okay, great.” He actually seemed pretty excited now, which was a huge relief because well… at some points today Niall had kinda started worrying about Liam only having said yes out of pity, or regretting it, but… if he was looking forward to what they were still gonna do, that was a good sign, right? “I actually… I wanted to apologize, for kinda… avoiding you a bit last week.”

“It’s okay, Liam, I know why you did it and… you already did apologize last night.” Via text message, but that hadn’t meant it hadn’t made Niall ridiculously happy. 

“No, but, like… I was being childish, I don’t know. Like… I was a bit taken off guard when you asked me and it’s not like I’ve never been thinking about it myself, just… I’ve barely been on dates with people who were my friends first and… I mean, you know both Harry and Louis and you know Rosie and it’s like… I was just panicking a bit because you know… because I got her.” Of course all of this made a lot of sense and Niall had known all of it before, but having Liam explain it, telling Niall that he had considered all of this as well was still nice to hear. 

“I know… I really understand, Li. I know this is different and I never… never thought like… you know, that I’d come here and… and immediately have a crush on someone I don’t even know but… “ Shrugging a bit, Niall buried his hands even deeper in his pockets because it wasn’t that warm anymore outside, a little surprised when they walked past the bus station, but actually, he kinda liked walking with Liam anyways.

“Oh, immediately, yeah?” Was all Liam asked, a cheeky smile on his face when Niall turned his head, rolling his eyes though he was probably blushed yet again. “No, but I know what you mean… I also wouldn’t have thought that I’d like you this much, but… here we are. I mean… we’ll see what happens right? And… we’ll take it slowly?”

“Of course, I… I’m not someone to immediately jump into something head over heels and… and after all you got Rosie and I don’t want to like, I don’t know… have her get used to me sort of and then… “ And then just piss off again. The fact alone that Liam did have a child was making Niall slightly nervous of course, like hypothetically, if they did end up being in a serious relationship, Niall would have to be there for her as well, but… strangely enough, that thought didn’t scare him as much as he would have thought. 

“Yeah… but we’ll just see what happens, okay? I mean, it’s not my first date since I’ve had her, so…“ Not really what Niall wanted to hear, but obviously, it was nothing he was surprised about. Also, they didn’t know each other that long either to where Niall could have felt something like jealousy, he had obviously been in relationships before as well. “Anyways, should we… stop with the serious talk now, maybe? How was your day?”

“Good… I was… a bit nervous for tonight, but… “ More than just a little bit, but there was no need to tell Liam that because admitting it alone was bad enough.

“Yeah, me too… “ Really? “But I was busy playing Barbie and trying to get some work on my laptop done and watching the Lion King at the same time, so that was probably better… “ Liam let out a laugh that made Niall smile, because clearly, none of that had really bothered him at all and the blonde found that it was really cute. “Do you have a lot to do for uni?”

“Not really right now, but it’ll probably get really bad soon and… I just hope I won’t get too stressed ‘cos then I’ll start to not get any shit done anymore.” Especially here, because Niall didn’t really know any of the professors or how high their expectations were and that thought kinda freaked him out a little bit. 

“You’ll be fine, Nialler, I’m sure you will be. If you need any help or so… you can always ask me, okay? I mean… I’m not very good at any of the stuff you’re learning there, but… I can try.” He was so sweet really, and Niall knew that Liam really meant it, that he really would have tried his very best just to help Niall out and it caused his stomach to grow a bit warmer. 

“Thank you, Liam, really, I… I guess I’ll be fine though, I mean… it’s not that I’m so extremely bad at studying, but… it’s kinda different here and… but I’m still glad that I moved, it’s gotten a lot better.” A whole ton, especially now that he was on a date with Liam, and god… Niall couldn’t even think of what his mother would possibly say when he told her, she’d be happy for sure, in case… in case this turned out well. Maybe not so much about the fact that Liam already had a child, but… the blonde’s parents weren’t in any way judgmental or anything, they’d probably ask to meet Liam way sooner than appropriate. 

“Yeah? That’s good, I told you you’d be fine, didn’t I?” Liam smiled at the younger boy, seemingly hesitating for a second before simply wrapping his arm around Niall shoulders, causing his breath to stop as he pulled him in closer, squeezing him a bit before letting go again and the blonde almost thought he had to die. God, he wanted to hold Liam’s hand so badly right now, but… not yet. “’m glad you’ve lived yourself in, Ni… wouldn’t want you to leave again.”

“Oh, don’t worry… I’m not leaving.” Especially not after tonight.

 

\--------------------

 

“That was better than I expected.” Niall seemed to mean it, his elbow bumping into Liam’s as they walked outside between everyone else who had seen the movie, probably knowing a lot more about the plot though because they had probably been paying more attention than Liam had. “I liked it.”

“Me too… thanks for coming with me, not sure if Harry or Louis would have.” Probably not, but the blonde had really seemed to have been enjoying himself, had laughed and well… Liam had tried to do the same, only it had gotten slightly hard after he had pulled the old trick of letting his arm fall over the back of Niall’s seat, his eyes getting stuck on the side of the blonde’s face a few too many times during the last one and a half hours. Or actually, the whole night long already.

They hadn’t gone to a fancy restaurant to eat of course, none of them being exactly rich, and they had split the bill too, just because Niall had been wanting to pay, saying it was only fair since the date had been his idea, but Liam had simply refused, so they had found a compromise. It had gone really well, all of it, it was like hanging out with a really, really good friend, talking about anything that would come to mind, about family, hobbies and all that kinda stuff, Liam honestly felt like he had gotten to know Niall better in the last few hours than the last two months. Like, all those little things, his favorite color, the music he liked to listen to, what he liked to eat for breakfast and honestly… Liam could have sat there for hours just talking to Niall about life. Well, and stare at him while trying not to touch him too many times.

So yeah, it _had_ been like hanging out with a good friend, but a good friend Liam had a massive crush on. 

“Well, I’m always available.” The thing was, Niall made it seem like a joke, but as they bumped into each other yet again and Liam automatically put his hand on the small of the blonde’s back to steady him, he was pretty damn sure that Niall had meant every single word, his cheeks going a bit redder at the touch. At least Liam wasn’t the only one who felt this way, just knowing that he had such an effect on Niall was almost making him feel high. 

“Better not say that, I might ask you to come see really crappy movies with me every single week or something.” Sad thing was, Liam would have watched any movie in the world if he could have only been with Niall. “No, but… I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

“Yeah, me too… I… I enjoyed all of it, you know, not just the movie.” His voice got a bit lost between everyone else talking and because he had said it kinda quietly, but Liam heard it anyways, feeling himself starting to smile because he felt exactly the same way.

“Me too… we gotta do this again soon.” Sure, Liam would have loved to drag this night out for a bit longer, however… it was almost eleven pm by now and the brunette man was sure that Louis and Harry would be asleep by the time he got back anyways, but… this was still their first date, right?

“Yeah… just let me know, I… I’m almost always free anyways.” Niall joked but there was truth in his words and had Liam not had two jobs he _needed_ to get done every day and a daughter, he would have surely been thinking the exact same way. The blonde seemed to be able to help with one of these things though. “And you can bring Rosie too, if you want… I can show you my place, and attempt to cook something that won’t poison us?”

“I’m sure you can’t be that bad at cooking, Nialler.” But he was, Liam was just trying to be nice because the blonde had told him before and his shockingly slim knowledge on how to make the basics had almost caused the older man to feel slightly worried for him as he had texted him one afternoon a few weeks ago, asking how to cook rice.

“Well… does take out count? ‘cos I’m pretty good at putting that out of the box and on a plate.” There was a somewhat proud smile on his face while Liam just shook his head at him, trying to look shocked while he wanted to laugh on the inside. At least he’d always have an excuse to invite Niall over for dinner now.

It took them a while to get out of the mall because there were still a lot of people, and just for security reasons, Liam made sure to keep his hands on Niall’s once a while, at one point happening to brush the blonde’s fingers with his and then eventually for whatever reason, they just so happened to hold hands. Liam could feel the heat crawling in his cheeks as Niall squeezed his fingers, a small smile playing around his lips even though they weren’t looking at each other, just pretending that nothing had happened. The younger boy’s hand was soft, a bit rough maybe, but Liam was pretty sure that holding hands with someone had never made him feel like this before.

“Can I… walk you home?” Was pretty much the first thing Niall asked as soon as they were outside, both having to walk into the same direction obviously, but not all the way.

“You always do though, I… I think I should bring you home this time.” Not that Niall did it so often, but he had stayed quite a few times until closing hour at the coffee shop and it’d be a lie to say that Liam didn’t enjoy the hell out of it. “You don’t live very far from my flat anyways, right?”

“No, not really, only a few blocks, but I can totally-“

“No, no, it’s fine, really, I wanna walk you home.” Throwing the blonde a small smile, Liam couldn’t believe that they were still holding hands, not even lightly either, but with their fingers somehow having interlocked and… it felt really damn good. “I need to make sure you’ll get home in a whole piece.”

“Why wouldn’t I? I could have texted you anyways.” He always did because Liam always made sure to ask, but today was a special day and to be completely honest here, the older man kinda had a feeling that they’d be walking a bit longer if they went to Niall’s place instead of his own.

“I know, but I still wanna walk you. There’s a high crime rate in this area.” Not really, but for a moment, Niall’s head immediately turned around to look at Liam with wide eyes, only to roll them when the brunette let out a chuckle. 

“That wasn’t funny, Liam, I… I thought I did bad research when I was looking for a place.” Niall didn’t seem pissed off in any way though, even if he tried to be, but the fact that he made not the slightest attempt to pull his hand out of Liam’s or did nothing besides throwing a playful glare at him said a lot.

“Sorry, Ni, that was mean. But honestly though, you think I’d live there with a 4-year-old if it was so dangerous?” Well, considering the fact that Liam hadn’t had a lot of choice where he had moved to… maybe. 

“Who knows. It doesn’t look like a very lively area to me, like… I barely ever see anyone on the streets.” He shrugged a bit, looking over his shoulder for a moment and Liam was pretty sure that in secret, Niall was actually quite relieved that he was walking him home this time. 

“Yeah, I know… ‘s why the coffee shop isn’t going that well either. And why you are our best customer even though I always give you everything on the house.” Actually, Liam always paid for Niall’s drinks himself, but… no one needed to know that, right? “Where do you wanna live once you’re done with uni?”

“Hmm… I’ll stay here for a while, I think. But I don’t know really, wherever I’m getting a job I suppose. Do you wanna stay here forever?” Niall turned his head to look at Liam, an undefinable expression on his face but the brunette man was still pretty sure what this was about anyways.

“Not forever, but… I don’t have much of a choice, I guess. I’ll see what happens, I can’t dare to lose any of my jobs, so… “ Of course Liam didn’t wanna stay here forever, but it was like… Rosie was used to everything here and Liam had two jobs here, it just seemed very convenient to stay. Then again, if both Harry and Louis left and then if maybe he and Niall… had something more going on, Liam wouldn’t want the blonde to stay here just for him, it wouldn’t seem fair at all. Great, another point to make all of this a lot more complicated. “You know… if we…. like, actually take this further then… “

“Would you… want to?” His voice sounded pretty hopeful and Liam kinda hated himself for having asked, however… wasn’t it obvious already? That they both had at least some kinda feelings for each other? They were walking down the streets holding hands after being on a date after all. 

“I mean… you know I like you and… and you know why I’m worried too, because… because of Rosie and… because you’re so young and-“

“I’m one year younger than you.” The blonde interrupted immediately, which was true of course, but not in the sense Liam had meant.

“Yeah, I know, I didn’t mean in comparison to me, I just meant… young to be in a relationship with… with a child involved. And I know I’m young to be a dad too, but… you know.” It was different, not like Liam had had a choice and obviously it had been his own fault and he also never ever regretted his little girl, but it was still a different thing for him than for Niall. “Not that I’m saying that… that it’d be a problem for me, I was just thinking.”

“I know… like, I would have never… thought something like this would happen to me, but I… I like Rosie and I like you and it’s just… I don’t think it really matters how old I am, if… if we both want it.” That was true, Liam was honestly a little bit relieved, even though of course he was aware that Niall maybe didn’t really know what he was getting himself into just yet, but… he was at the coffee shop multiple hours a day and played with Rosie, so… it wouldn’t become much different than that, right? And it’s not like… not like they were gonna get married tomorrow and he’d adopt her or something. “We can take it slow… like you said and then… we’ll see.”

“Yeah, we will… “ And hopefully it’d turn out to be fine because Liam wasn’t really the type to have flings, he used to be, when he was a lot younger, but he had changed a lot ever since then and it’d be really nice to be in a serious relationship, with someone he cared a lot about, someone who’d just… be there and who he really liked. Maybe just the thought of it was making his brain feeling a bit like mush.

 

\------------------

 

Niall couldn’t believe how fucking well the date had gone, and that he was holding Liam’s _hand_ all the way back to his place, that the brunette man had insisted on walking him home and just in general that they were getting along so fucking well, that Liam didn’t seem opposed to going on another date and that he could imagine that maybe they could be something more than just friends.

Honestly, the blonde had probably fallen for Liam even harder just from the last few hours and he almost felt like a teenager with a first crush or something, that’s how bloody excited he was. Sure, Liam still had worries and it was obvious, but that was normal, and just the fact that he genuinely seemed to like Niall back was enough for the younger boy. They could take it as slowly as Liam wanted, Niall didn’t mind at all, if only they got to spent time together because really, that’s everything he had been thinking about ever since they had met. 

“That’s me… “ The blonde unwillingly stopped them, pointing to the building on their right with the thumb of his free hand. How come he was feeling so sad about having to say goodbye when they had spent _hours_ together and when it most likely hadn’t even been their last date? And let’s be real… there was no way in hell Niall wasn’t straight gonna go to the coffee shop on Monday after uni. 

“Oh wow, you really do live close.” Liam actually seemed a bit impressed, but he was right either ways, his fingers still intertwined with Niall’s as he stared at the building for a moment, then at Niall once more, his face only being lit up by the nearby streetlight, barely any sounds really reaching them. Suddenly, Niall felt pretty hot. “So… “

As they looked at each other, with still a bit of distance between them obviously but holding hands, Niall suddenly felt a pretty strong urge to just lean forward and kiss Liam, his eyes flickering down to the older’s soft looking lips, only for the split of a second before he had gotten himself together once more, not wanting to startle Liam or do anything wrong. So instead, he made it even worse. “Do you… do you wanna come upstairs? I… I’ll just show you my flat quickly… if you want.”

“I… “ The brunette man seemed to feel the tension too, because he was mindlessly staring into Niall’s eyes before clearing his throat a bit, clearly still trapped in thoughts as he opened his mouth before closing it once more without saying anything, hesitating. 

“You don’t have to, just… I thought maybe…maybe you wanted to see it, you know… “ Or maybe Niall just couldn’t bear the thought of seeing Liam walk away now, not after such an amazing night, he just wanted to be with Liam for a little bit longer, and everyone back at the brunette’s flat was probably asleep already anyways, so… 

“I… okay, yeah, I… I’d love to see it.” Liam finally agreed and the blonde tried to mask his excitement a bit as a smile spread across his face and he didn’t leave the other man any time to change his mind anymore, already softly pulling him towards the entrance by his hand, his heart bumping faster than appropriate for just wanting to show someone his place.

Niall lived on the third floor, so the elevator ride didn’t take too long but neither of them really spoke, having been forced to let go of each other’s hands as Niall had tried to fumble the key into the lock, now desperately wanting to grab onto Liam once more while they were stuck together in such a small place. But for some reason, he didn’t. 

The building kinda looked similar to Liam’s since they lived in the same area, but the older man still took a look around as they walked down the hallway where Niall’s front door was, the blonde suddenly getting a bit blushed as he thought about how he hadn’t cleaned anything up and how small his flat really was, but… it was just Liam, he wouldn’t judge Niall for that, would he?

“Okay… here we are.” Letting out a breath, Niall quickly told himself that there was nothing to worry as he pushed open his door, hand sliding across the wall to turn on the lights before stepping aside to let Liam enter behind him, eyes glued to the brunette’s face so he’d know immediately what he was thinking. “It’s kinda small… and messy, sorry, I didn’t… really clean anything up, but yeah… “

“It’s fine, Niall, don’t worry… it’s nice, I like it.” He seemed to mean it, even if Niall could barely believe him, closing the door behind himself as Liam took a bit of a look around, not much to see anyways because Niall literally only had a bedroom, a kitchen and a small bath. But something did seem to catch Liam’s eye in the end, because he turned around with a smile. “You really did put them all up, huh?”

“Well… not all of them ‘cos I’m running a bit out of space by now, but a few.” Chuckling a bit nervously, Niall slipped off his shoes, putting the keys on the table as he stood next to Liam, briefly watching the pictures Rosie had drawn for him that he had put on his fridge with some magnets. At least they kinda decorated the room a little bit.

“I know that problem… “ Liam’s whole place was covered with it, not only pictures his daughter had drawn but also normal photos of her and it honestly was the cutest thing ever to Niall. “I really like your place though, it’s cozy.”

“I don’t know about that, but… definitely bigger than my room back home.” Though Niall let out a laugh, it got stuck in his throat a little bit as he shrugged off his jacket because he was feeling way too hot by now, desperately trying to think of a way to get Liam to stay even longer. “Do you… want anything to drink? I don’t have a lot, but…. “

“Yeah, sure, I’m fine with anything.” Okay, at least he didn’t want to go home just yet, right? It seemed like he wanted to stay as well and the blonde definitely needed to use that to his advantage.

They both ended up with a glass of water, just standing around in the kitchen, neither of them really thirsty or anything at all, taking a few sips before putting them back on the counter, doing some mindless smalltalk, which was weird considering the fact that they had been having really great conversations during the whole date, only now that… that there was this _thing_ kinda standing between them, Niall didn’t really know what to do or how to ask for what he wanted.

“I should… probably go home.” The older man started after a while and Niall shuffled his feet, kinda panicking inside because how in god’s name was he just gonna let Liam leave now and then go to bed afterwards as if nothing had happened?

“Yeah… yeah, or… or you could… stay a little longer and… “ And fucking kiss me, that’s what Niall was dying to say, but Liam wanted to take it slow and the blonde was really trying to respect that. Just god… Liam’s lips were looking so good in that light, and his hands were warm and slightly bigger than Niall’s, probably would feel really good on his waist and… okay, that was enough.

“I… I don’t know if I should… “ It sounded a bit unsure, almost only like a whisper and as their eyes met once more, Niall knew that they were both having the same thoughts, that Liam was having an inner conflict with himself right now, and for some reason, even though he knew it was wrong, he took a small step forward, hearing his own heartbeat in his ear.

“I think you should… “ Niall almost only whispered, feeling more confident as Liam didn’t make any attempts to step back or anything, as if he wanted this as well but wasn’t quite sure if he should, so he just stood there while Niall slowly lowered the distance between them, his mouth going dry and his hands sweaty, as if he was doing this for the very first time.

There was a moment where they just looked at each other, both their breath going slightly uneasy, their body’s so close that they could have easily touched, and as Niall tentatively reached out for the older man, placing a hand on his arm, just lightly, Liam didn’t pull back, just kept looking at him, his expression slightly worried but at the same time… he didn’t seem to be wanting to pull back either.

Niall hadn’t planned on this to happen, not on their first date, hadn’t thought he could like Liam this much already, but as he took another small step, hand running up Liam’s arm, tilting his head just slightly as his eyes once more flickered down to the older’s lips, it didn’t feel wrong anymore in any way.

The blonde boy waited, stayed with his face only centimeters away from the brunette’s, waiting for silent permission to close the gap between them, his cheeks and ears going warm as he waited, feeling Liam’s breath ever so lightly hitting his lips. And then suddenly, it was the older man who leaned forward, only waiting for the split of a second, his hands settling on the blonde’s waist, and then all of a sudden, his mouth was right pressed on top of Niall’s.

It felt so good to kiss Liam, Niall’s eyes almost fell closed immediately, arms coming up to wrap around Liam’s neck as the older man held on tighter to him, keeping Niall closer as he ever so slowly parted his lips, tongue moving over the blonde’s bottom lip, who immediately gave him access to his mouth, a sigh escaping him as Liam’s tongue slipped inside, nudging against his.

Niall’s head was spinning like crazy, he couldn’t quite grasp the fact that this was actually happening, that Liam was kissing him like that, so gentle and yet so desperate, their bodies pressed together as they clung to each other, taking the other one in as they snogged in the middle of Niall’s kitchen. There were about a thousand butterflies erupting in Niall’s stomach, tingles all over his skin as he curled his fingers into Liam’s hair, the older’s fingers pressing so hard into his side that it almost hurt. 

“We… we shouldn’t…” Their lips were still pressed together as Liam mumbled against Niall’s, the blonde’s shirt rugging up a little bit underneath his fingers, kissing the blonde once more, softly, as if he didn’t want to break him. 

“I know… “ Was all Niall brought out between shallow breaths, lips feeling swollen as they brushed against Liam’s, his mouth tasting like the older man, eyes still closed, noses brushing together. 

Though Liam hesitated for the tiniest moment, he didn’t pull away, didn’t let go of Niall in the slightest way but rather fitted their mouths to each other once more, not so eager this time anymore, and the blonde was melting against him, his brain kinda turning to mush underneath the long, deep strokes of Liam’s tongue against his. 

It was bad enough that they were making out now after having agreed to take it slow, but neither of them pulled away other than to pant for a second and it was just so _good_ that Niall didn’t even think about it when he felt Liam’s fingers slipping underneath his shirt, didn’t think of stopping or even hesitating. He wanted to as well, really badly, wanted everything Liam was willing to give him, and if this was it, the blonde would happily comply.

Niall’s bedroom was literally right behind them, and Niall blamed it on the fact that he wasn’t thinking clearly right now as he slowly made sure to make Liam walk backwards. Had the brunette man wanted to stop at any time then he could have easily done it, could have just pulled away and of course Niall would have let him. But he didn’t.

They fell onto the bed in the most graceless way ever, the younger boy pretty sure that his elbow hit somewhere between the older’s ribs, but he never heard any complaint at all, just allowed Liam to manhandle him, turning him around so that he could be on top instead, his still clothed body fully pressing Niall into the mattress as their lips met once more, shortly.

“We should stop…” Again, Liam voiced his worries out loud, quietly, his voice sounding breathless and at the same time having his palm pressed up against Niall’s warm cheek, thumb tracing the bone, then his lips. And the blonde was pretty sure that he hadn’t ever been this desperate to be with someone. 

“Yes…” But they didn’t.

Liam’s jacket and shoes were easy to get rid of, hitting the floor with a dump sound, Niall’s shirt already rugged up halfways as he started to tuck on Liam’s, their kisses having gone more eager, deeper, and it was almost as if they had done this a few hundred times before, the way they were mapping the other’s body with their hands and mouths, the way they moved together, pants and half broken moans filling the room.

“Niall, do you… do you really want to?” Despite the heat of the situation and Niall having half torn off Liam’s shirt seconds before, hands now rubbing over the older’s bare chest and stomach, feeling the muscles there and the dark hair, the older man still checked for his well-being and maybe it was inappropriate but it was still the sweetest thing ever.

“Yeah… “ Niall could barely even talk from the lack of breath, his jeans feeling tight as Liam’s crotch was pressed up right against his, the older man once more lowering himself on the blonde for another kiss, easily nudging his lips apart to lick into his mouth.

Honestly, Niall wouldn’t have cared what it is they were gonna do, he just let Liam have the upper hand, sighing into the older’s mouth as he felt Liam’s hand slipping between their bodies, brushing Niall’s bare stomach before fumbling with the button and zipper of his jeans, the kiss getting broken for a moment as Niall tried his best to help get them somewhat undressed, pulling at Liam’s jeans a bit too eagerly, causing his erection to spring free and a hiss to fall out of the older’s mouth. God, was it stupid to think that he had a really nice cock?

For a second, the blonde boy just stared, his chest heaving a bit, getting taken by surprise when Liam pulled down his jeans as well, along with his boxers, not all the way, just enough to expose Niall to the rather cold air as well. Shit, they were really gonna do this, on a first fucking date and… why didn’t it feel wrong in any way at all?

This time it was different, when Liam leaned back down, his eyes were dark with lust, but his kisses were gentle and soft, nipping on Niall’s bottom lip before his mouth left a wet trail down the younger’s cheek and jaw, sucking lightly on his neck and the blonde let his head fall back with a moan, giving Liam more access while at the same time still having his arms curled around his shoulders, making sure he stayed close.

The first thrust was a bit out of nowhere, it was messy and uncoordinated, but Liam quickly pushed his hand between them once more and Niall thought he couldn’t breathe anymore as he felt the older’s palm wrap around his cock, trapping it against Liam’s in his fist, precum making the slide easy as Liam slowly jerked them off together, panting heavily against the wet spot he had created on Niall’s pale skin.

It was so bloody good, all the build up pushing Niall closer to the edge than he would have liked, another moan escaping him as he cupped Liam’s face into his hands, looking into his eyes for just the split of a second before pulling him down to kiss him once more, feeling like he couldn’t have survived if he didn’t feel the older’s lips pressed against his. 

Feeling the drag of Liam’s rough hand and his hot erection against his was almost too much for Niall, he was just hoping that the walls were thick as he couldn’t hold back his moans anymore, clinging to Liam for his dear life, the sounds the older man was making going straight to Niall’s groin. Liam was being so gentle still, not just riding out his own pleasure, lips slipping from Niall’s only to keep them pressed to his cheek, stubble rubbing across the skin, undoubtedly leaving it pink and red.

When Niall came, it was kinda out of nowhere, his ears feeling as if they had been stuffed with cotton as he came between their bellies, probably on his shirt too that he was still wearing, pressing his eyes closed as he rode out his high, feeling the jerks of Liam’s hand getting more uneven, the older’s lips having slipped to Niall’s ear by now, letting out a deep moan as he reached his orgasm as well. 

_Shit_.

There was no regret once they both came down, breathing heavily and yet Liam still kissed Niall once more, softly, the back of his clean fingers ever so gently running down the blonde’s cheek, and Niall almost felt more butterflies erupting in his stomach, if that was even possible. “Liam… “

“… yeah?” His voice was undefinable as he somewhat moved off of Niall, not really having a lot of space in the blonde’s small bed to be lying next to one another, but somehow it worked though they were still touching, trying to catch their breath, neither of them yet moving to get cleaned up. Niall almost felt blissful lying like this, his eyes still closed, fingers somehow finding Liam’s and grabbing onto them, just because he could.

“Please stay… “ It just came out of him like that, not being able to bear the thought of having to say goodbye to Liam now, his warmth, the way everything smelled like him, and though the blonde still couldn’t believe that they had done this, he didn’t regret it just one second, knowing what Liam’s mouth and lips felt like, his hand wrapped around Niall’s, his body on top of his, how gentle and loving he had been… 

Niall never got an answer to what he had asked for but a deep kiss instead. He slept in that night with Liam’s arm across his waist, and the older’s chest pressed up against his back, the even puffs of his breath hitting the back of Niall’s neck, fingers intertwined, and the blonde was pretty damn sure that he had never been more in love with anybody before.

 

When Niall woke up in the morning though, Liam was gone.

 

\----------------------

 

Liam knew that it had been his own choice, that he had done most of the work, and for the moment, for the night, it had seemed alright, had felt good, having Niall in his arms while they slept, waking up to the blonde’s relaxed face right in front of his, his forehead feeling warm under the press of Liam’s lips.

And that’s when he had whispered Liam’s name and caused the older man to panic.

He knew he shouldn’t have left just like that, but it was just… Liam couldn’t believe that they had gone this far, that he had allowed it, and though it had been amazing and though he really, really liked Niall and wanted to be with him… Liam still had his worries. He had a daughter, he couldn’t just… ask Niall to be his boyfriend or something and bring him home and… he couldn’t do that. Only lying there and running his fingers through the blonde’s hair, it seemed like the promise of taking it slow had long lost its meaning.

When Liam got home, it was early in the morning, there was a feeling building in the pit of his stomach that he tried to ignore, locking away the guilt he felt for now because he first of all needed to figure out what to tell Niall and how and… god, why was this so complicated? Why couldn’t they just… 

Louis and Harry were asleep on the couch as the brunette arrived, trying to be extra quiet as he slipped off his shoes and jacket, half tiptoeing across the room and into the hallway, for a moment almost going to his own bedroom to change but then he stopped in front of Rosie’s half open door, momentarily completely forgetting about last night. 

_This_ was who he had to think of first, not himself, it was always his daughter that came first and nobody else, and Niall and him would… they would figure this out, just hopefully in a slower pace than they had a few hours ago. And hopefully Niall wouldn’t be too hurt and disappointed once he woke up later.

Pushing the door open, Liam felt a smile spreading on his face as he saw Rosie lying in her bed, cuddling more than just one of her stuffed animals, chest moving softly and hair a mess from sleeping. Looking at her made it fairly easy for Liam to remind himself of his very first priority. Her. 

At first, Liam didn’t plan on it, didn’t want to wake her or anything, but his legs seemed to kinda move by themselves, sitting down on the other edge of the bed before half lying down next to her, never taking his eyes off of her face as he brushed a piece of hair behind her ear, stroking her temple and cheek before leaning down to kiss the side of her forehead. 

“Daddy… “ It was almost only a breath but Liam still heard her, running his fingers through her hair like he had done before with Niall’s, moving a little bit closer. 

“Shhh… I’m here, baby, stay asleep.” She hadn’t really woken up, only a little bit, stirring just slightly, her eyes flattering open for a second. 

“Daddy… you’re back…” Rosie mostly sounded tired and still asleep as she mumbled, but it still made Liam smile as she tried to cuddle into him, pulling her softly against his chest. 

“I am, bug… go back to sleep, yeah? I’m here… “ And he always would be.

 

\--------------------

 

It was a stressful following few days, Niall would be lying if he said that he was too surprised that Liam had left in the morning without saying a word. That night before it had been easy to think that it’d all end just fine, that they’d wake up in the morning and… just kiss and then talk about it and… and tell each other that they had feelings for each other and… but obviously, that hadn’t happened.

Of course they had talked about it, on the phone on Sunday evening, but Liam hadn’t said anything Niall hadn’t already known. He was worried, had enjoyed the night with Niall but still thought that they shouldn’t have gone that far, should have taken it slowly. But they hadn’t and it hadn’t only been Niall’s fault.

Needless to say, the blonde didn’t feel very good, he didn’t go to the coffee shop at all that week, sometimes texting Liam for a few minutes but nothing more, wanting to give him time. Niall had done his part, he had asked Liam on a date, he hadn’t been the one who had left, now it was Liam’s turn to say or do something. Provided… provided he still wanted to give it a try because right now, it didn’t really seem like it. 

It was on Thursday in between classes, when Niall was sitting outside on his own, having told Louis and Harry that he didn’t really feel hungry and that he’d eat something later, not again wanting to be asked about the date. Liam obviously hadn’t told them what had happened in detail, so they probably thought that the brunette man had come home after the date, that it had all gone well and that… that they were on good terms.

When Niall’s phone started to vibrate, he had to suppress a sigh because he thought it was his mother, again, almost thinking about not picking up because he needed some time to think, but as he did get it out of his pockets and saw the name on the display, his heart almost stopped.

It was Liam.

Why was he calling? He knew Niall had class again soon so he probably wouldn’t wanna talk things out or anything, so what if… what if something had happened? With his heart beating fast for multiple reasons, Niall quickly swiped his thumb across the screen before pressing the phone to his ear, almost holding his breath as he listened. “Liam? Hey, everything al-“

“Sorry to interrupt you, I was told you are a friend of Liam Payne?” It was a woman’s voice and to say Niall was confused would have been a fucking lie. What the hell was going on? Had Liam lost his phone?

“Uh, yes, I am, where… where is he? Why do you have his phone?” Maybe this was a trick or something, but Niall was way too taken off guard as to even think about that. 

“No need to panic at all, I’m calling from the hospital in-“

“What?! Liam’s in hospital, what… what happened? Is he alright?!” Oh fucking hell, what… what if Liam wasn’t alright? What if something serious had happened, what if… oh god. “Where’s his daughter, she-“

“His daughter is just fine, she’s next to me actually, she was the one who told us to call you. We can give you more information on Mr. Payne’s health condition if you come here, if you can’t make it, it’d be nice if you could direct me to someone who-“

“No, no, I’ll be there as soon as I can, I… I’m on my way.” Niall had started to mindlessly shove his stuff into his backpack with his free hand, tears building up in his eyes as he struggled to keep his voice from cracking. At least Rosie was fine, at least…

Oh god, what if something terrible had happened? What if… what if Liam would _die_?!

 

\-----------------

 

Neither Louis nor Harry had picked up their phones and Niall had run out of time, so he had just left uni, half running, barely making it into the bus before he would have missed it, all the while trying to hold back his tears. Shit, how could this have happened? How… what the hell had happened, why now why… what if Niall would never get to tell Liam how much he meant to him and god… what about Rosie, she needed her daddy, oh god, this couldn’t possibly be happening.

It seemed like ages until Niall reached the hospital and found the right floor and hallway, barely even having any time left to wipe his tears or get himself to calm down, ignoring every text message from Harry and Louis asking why he had called them so many times. They were Liam’s best friends, of course they deserved to know, but Niall didn’t even know himself yet what had happened. 

“Niall!” It almost hurt his ears to hear Rosie half yelling and sobbing, but it caused a wave of relief to rush through Niall as he saw her, going down to his knees even before she had even fully reached him, face wet and red.

“Hey, Rosie, hey, it’s okay, I’m here, it’s okay...” Nothing was okay at all. There was a woman who had been trying to keep the little girl from running towards Niall who was now coming over to them as well but the blonde completely ignore her, easily picking up Rosie, her legs wrapping around his waist and her arms around his neck as she cried into his shirt.

“I-I w-want m-my d-daddy…” She sobbed and it broke Niall’s heart, pressing his eyes closed for a moment as he held her, trying to force his own tears back into his body.

“I know you do, shh… it’ll be alright.” But what if it wouldn’t be?

“You are Niall?” The woman asked once she was close enough, she seemed to be nice, dressed in all white, a sympathetic smile on her face as she watched the blonde gently rocking Liam’s daughter, hand rubbing across her back. 

“Yes, I… please tell me Liam’s alright, I… I came as quickly as I could, what… what happened? Where is he?” Judging by her face and the whole situation, Liam had to still be alive, so Niall tried to find comfort in that, even though he was shaking, barely able to breathe properly anymore. He _needed_ to see Liam, see if he was alright, if he’d be fine, he didn’t even care anymore that the brunette hadn’t asked him to talk all of this out yet, if only he’d be fine, that’d be enough for Niall.

“Mr. Payne is alright, there is no need to worry, but he is in surgery right now and-“

“Surgery?!” Niall blurted out, immediately regretting it once he felt Rosie flinching, her sobs having quieted down but she was now grabbing onto Niall so hard that it almost hurt. “How… how can he be alright, if-“

“Please, Mr…?” The woman started before stopping, waiting for Niall to choke out his last name before she continued. “Mr. Horan, he will be alright, I can’t give you any details on his condition unless you are related to him?”

“No, I… I’m his… he’s my best friend.” Not the other way around probably, but…. Niall had never had a friend like Liam. 

“Alright, look. He was involved in a car accident along with a few other people, you’ll probably read about it in the newspaper, it was right by the pedestrian cross next to the kindergarten, really terrible, but luckily nobody died. Mr. Payne will be alright, but he’s in surgery right now and we’re going to keep him over night and until he wakes up, I’m sorry, but I can’t let anybody visit him until tomorrow after he’s awake. But I can assure you that he will regain perfect health.” That was both comforting, but also… scary as shit.

“What about Rosie, I… “ Was Niall just allowed to take her home with him? Or would she have to stay here, by herself? Because Niall wouldn’t let that happen, no way, she had seen god knows what happening to her dad, he wasn’t gonna leave her here all by herself, she was only 4 years old for Christ’s sake. 

“She is completely fine, not even a scratch, there were immediately people there helping, so I’m fairly certain she didn’t see all that much. You can take her home over night of course, actually… I’d really want you to, or maybe if you could give us the contact details of another family member?” Thank god, that was… at least something, even if not at all enough to help Niall to calm down because inside, he felt like a freaking mess. How could this have happened?! Why Liam?

“No, I… his family would at least need a day to get here, I’ll take her home over night. Can I… can we come back tomorrow and see him? Or can you give me a call maybe, if… if you’re sure that he’s stable?” Niall had no idea how any of this worked, they weren’t related or together, but… but Rosie was Liam’s daughter, she should be allowed to be told whether her dad would be alright, even if she was this young, she wasn’t too young to understand what was happening after all.

“I can certainly give you a call and tell you once you can come in and see him, that’s not a problem at all. I’ll just need you to sign a form that you’re taking her home and all will be good. Is that alright, Rosie, do you want to go home with Niall?” Her tone of voice had changed to a bit softer and Niall hoped that she had already talked to the little girl about everything, even though he wasn’t quite sure why Rosie had told her to call Niall over Louis and Harry. 

“Y-Yes… but… I w-want my d-daddy… “ Rosie repeated from before and Niall held her a bit tighter, shushing her quietly. This girl was Liam’s whole entire world, Niall wasn’t intending on letting anything happen to her or make her feel bad.

“We’ll see him tomorrow, love, okay, I promise. He just needs to rest a little bit and then he’ll be alright again, you’ll see.” Niall was really trying to sound comforting, not promise too much because even though he was fairly certain that this woman wouldn’t lie to him on purpose, you never knew after all. 

“Is he h-hurt?” There were still occasional sobs escaping her but it was getting a lot better, even if she was still clinging to Niall, as if she’d never be willing to let him go again. Understandable. 

“No, he’s okay, Rosie, everything will be fine, yeah? There’s no need to cry, I’m here.” Just to make his words seem a little more real, Niall quickly held her with only one arm in order to wipe over his own eyes and cheeks, not wanting her to see how much of a mess he really was. “We’ll go home and then we’ll call uncle Harry and Louis, okay? And before you even know it it’s gonna be tomorrow and you can see your daddy, is that alright?”

“Y-Yes… “ Was all she sniffed and Niall kept a hand at the back of her head as he nodded at the woman, still with a very weird feeling in his stomach, before following her to where he needed to sign in order to be able to take Rosie home.

This was a freaking mess. 

 

\--------------

 

“Niall, what the hell? Why’d you call me 50 times and then not pick up anymore? Harry said you called him too, what-“

“Look, Lou, I… I gotta tell you something.” Niall tried to do it in the softest way possible, at the same time trying to keep Rosie steady on his lap as they were on the bus. At least Niall somewhat felt alright again, he was so worried about Liam that it hurt, but there was nothing he could have done to help him more other than to take care of his daughter in the best way possible. “Liam… Liam’s in hospital, he-“

“WHAT?! And you’re telling me only _now_? Shit, what happened, where is he, we-“

“He’s fine, Louis, it was a drunk driver for all I know, but… I was just at the hospital, okay? And I’ve got Rosie with me now, she’s completely fine, but we can’t see Liam until tomorrow when he wakes up.” That was the short version of everything because Niall was very aware of the little girl on his lap playing with the straps of her backpack that she had had with her at kindergarten. Before they had walked out of the hospital, Niall had made sure to clean her face and help her blow her nose, promising her again that Liam would be fine and that she’d see him tomorrow, so she seemed kinda fine for now at least.

“Jesus Christ… how did this happen? That’s fucking crazy… are you sure he’ll be fine? If he was hit by a car? Or are you just saying that because Rosie is with you?” Niall probably wouldn’t have been able to even speak from crying so much had that been the case, why else did Louis think he was so calm?

“No, I’m not just saying that, that’s what I’ve been told too. And I don’t think he was… hit by it, he just… I don’t know exactly what happened, they won’t tell you unless you’re related to him.” The blonde explained, helping Rosie with one hand to open the zipper of her backpack, feeling just a little bit more terrible than before as she took out a stuffed dog just to cuddle it to her chest. Niall really needed to make sure she’d be fine. “Do you think that…. that she should stay with me or-“

“Yeah, she definitely should, just keep her at your place, alright? I don’t think it’d be a good idea to bring her home, we do have a key to Liam’s flat, but… just keep her distracted at your place, okay? We can come over if you need us.” How come they all trusted Niall so much? Like yeah, they were friends, but… 

“Thanks, Louis, I… I don’t know why… why she didn’t tell them to call you guys instead.” Niall was sure that Rosie wasn’t paying any attention to what he was saying at all, and if she was, she probably didn’t know who he was talking about anyways.

“Well, you hang out with her the most, me and Harry don’t actually see her that often. And she knows you and Liam went on a date because I had to explain it to her that night.” Oh… that kinda made sense. So basically… Liam’s fear of Rosie getting too used to Niall was… kinda pointless? “You know… now that we’re talking about it, I have no idea what really happened on your date, but… I can tell Liam really likes you and… I know he only came home in the morning, so if you, you know… if you’re serious about this, I think you guys gotta talk.”

“Yeah, I know, I… we will, I really am serious about this and I really like him and… I just really want him to be okay right now.” Though Niall felt himself blush talking about this, he was still more worried about Liam’s health over anything else. They could talk once the brunette man was out of hospital, they’d have enough time to do so. “Thanks, Louis… “

“You’re welcome. Call if you need anything, okay? Or text, we’ve still got a few classes left.” Thanking Louis once more, Niall hung up the phone and put it back into his pocket, grabbing onto Rosie a little bit tighter. She could have probably sat by herself, but as soon as they had sat down, she had immediately crawled over into Niall’s lap, so obviously, he had let her. 

“Hey, Rosie… are you okay?” The girl was still just cuddling with her stuffie, not really saying that much at all, which wasn’t very usual for her so naturally, Niall was getting worried. “If you want to talk about anything with me, then… it’s okay, yeah? We can talk about anything you want.”

There was a slight moment of hesitation and the blonde already thought she would just ignore him, but then she spoke up, very quietly and almost not audible over the sound the bus was making. “Daddy picked me up from kindergarten and… he always tells me to hold his hand really tightly when we go over the street but there was a really cute dog behind us and I let daddy’s hand go to go look at him and then suddenly there was a really loud sound and then a lot of people and I couldn’t find daddy anymore and… and what if he’s mad at me now because I let go of his hand? Is he hurt because he was looking for me?”

“No, hey, I promise your dad isn’t mad at you at all, okay? I bet he’s just really, really happy that you’re alright, yeah? And it didn’t have anything to do with you at all, it was just an accident and it would have happened anyways, it’s not your fault, babe, I promise.” Oh god… had she not let go of Liam’s hand, had she not gone looking at that dog… she might have been hit as well. Niall suddenly felt really fucking sick to his stomach. “Everything will be okay, Rosie, I’ll show you my flat, okay? And then we can have something to eat and then we can do whatever you want and tomorrow you’re gonna be with your daddy again, yeah?”

“Okay… can we eat pizza?” Her voice was very hopeful as she looked up at Niall with big, brown eyes and the blonde almost let out a laugh of relief, squeezing her gently. 

“Of course we can, love, whatever you want.” He promised once more and Rosie seemed to be pretty pleased by that before she put her head on Niall’s shoulder, putting her thumb into her mouth and the blonde just didn’t have the heart to stop her. 

It took a while until they finally got to Niall’s flat, the blonde considered for a while to ask Louis or Harry to get him some clothes for Rosie to sleep in, but he decided that she’d probably be fine just wearing one of his shirts so the other two wouldn’t have to hurry around so much. And besides… if he got her clothes, she might probably have asked to go home altogether and Niall didn’t wanna like… just stay overnight at Liam’s place or anything.

“Okay, here we are, I-“

“Oooh, you put up all my pictures!” Was the first thing Rosie said once they entered, immediately running over to the fridge, dropping her backpack on the way and Niall just smiled as he closed the door, putting down his own bag as he followed her.

“Yeah, I told you I would, didn’t I? But I’m kinda running out of space a little bit.” He was keeping the other ones as well obviously, but he wasn’t allowed to put up anything on the walls, so there was a slight problem. “Are you hungry or thirsty? Or anything else?”

“I’m a bit thirsty.” She told Niall will still staring at the pictures, her face having brightened up incredibly compared to before so the blonde counted that as success.

“Alright, do you want some juice?” There was a nod and Niall was pretty relieved that he did actually have juice in his fridge because most of the time, he didn’t. 

“Can I pour it in the glass, Niall?” Oh, right, of course she wanted to do that, tugging on blonde’s shirt as he was searching for a clean glass for her. 

“Of course you can, come here.” He lifted her on the counter, helping her a little bit to pour the juice, only spilling it a little bit but she seemed very proud when Niall told her afterwards that she had done a very good job. Maybe this wouldn’t be very hard at all, she was a well behaved child after all and Niall had seen Liam with her lots of times and well… he had a common sense as well. Hopefully Liam would have approved of the fact that his daughter was staying with Niall rather than any of the other two.

The whole day long, they watched movies on Niall’s laptop, for kids of course, and he found Rosie some pencils and paper to draw on, allowing her to draw on his notepads he used for uni as well and she was thrilled that she was allowed to make them look prettier.

They did order pizza, after her request, and Niall was pretty relieved because honestly, he hadn’t had any idea how or what to cook for her without even having anything at home. Though the blonde knew it was wrong, they ate in bed while watching Winnie Pooh and actually, it wasn’t boring or anything at all, Rosie was very entertaining, clearly starting to feel more comfortable, talking about her day at kindergarten and her friends there and the teacher and Niall just made sure to listen tentatively.

When it got later, the blonde wasn’t quite sure whether Rosie needed to go have a shower, she told him no, that she had already showered in the morning and Niall decided to believe her, just helping her to put on one of his shirts, smiling as it made her giggle over how big it was. 

“Okay… you can have the bed all to yourself, yeah? I’ll sleep on the couch and if-“

“Nooo, I wanna stay with you.” She was pouting as soon as Niall had tucked her in, making sure she had her stuffed dog and everything as he sat on the edge of the mattress. It was slightly weird, thinking about what he and Liam had done in this bed just a few days ago and now… 

“I’ll be right out in the living room, okay? We’ll keep the door open too and I can turn on the bedside table light as well.” Niall wasn’t really sure if he should have really given in to her sad face, the bed wasn’t exactly big, but she didn’t seem to care one bit.

“No, I don’t wanna be alone, Niall.” Just because the blonde wanted to avoid her from having to cry and because after all her dad wasn’t there, he gave in fairly quickly because he probably wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if she had been sad because of him.

“Okay, I’ll sleep in the bed as well, but you have to close your eyes first, okay? I’ll be right back.” He wasn’t tired at all, but then again, he’d probably be up the whole night worrying about Liam anyways, so it didn’t really matter if he did it in here or on the couch, did it?

Quickly changing his clothes and getting his phone, Niall made sure to get a second blanket and pillow before getting into bed on the other side under Rosie’s smile. She looked really adorable in his way too big shirt, all snuggled up into bed with her stuffed dog, apparently wanting to cuddle with Niall because she almost immediately moved closer to him as soon as he was lying next to her. “Can you tell me a story? My daddy always makes up stories before I go to bed.”

“Oh, of course I can, um… “ Shit, Niall didn’t know any stories at all, also had no idea how to make one up either and though he felt a little bit stupid for panicking now that the day had gone over so well, he still did. “I don’t know if… if I’m really good at that though, but… I can try. Alright, so…. once upon a time, umm… there was a blue a horse and it-“

“You have to give it a name.” Rosie interrupted, giggling, which was probably an indicator for the fact that Niall was doing a pretty terrible job.

“Right, sorry, so… once upon a time there was a blue horse named carrot and… it didn’t have any friends because the other horses thought it was weird for being blue and then… “ And then Niall got stuck.

“What happened then?” The girl asked, as if this story had already taken her attention and the blonde would have really loved to call Louis right now. “Was the horse very sad?”

“Yeah, I… only a little bit. It did have one friend, umm… a hedgehog.” Everyone liked hedgehogs, right?! “And the hedgehog and the horse, they… they always had a lot of fun together but then… then, ummm… “

“Did the hedgehog get lost because it was so small?” She interrupted once more, much to Niall’s relief, because it immediately gave him a bit of a story line. How was Liam able to do this _every_ night?

“Yeah… yeah, it did. And carrot was really sad and he was looking everywhere, but… he couldn’t find his friend and none of the other horses wanted to help him look.” Was that too sad of a goodnight story?

“Oh… that’s not nice at all. Did the horse find someone else that helped him look? Did he… did he find a really nice cat friend?!” That thought seemed to really excite her, so of course Niall picked up on that and somehow they managed to finish the story together and even though it probably hadn’t really made Rosie tired at all because she had been talking just as much as the blonde, she still had to yawn at the very end while Niall was just relieved.

“Hey… I think it’s time to try and sleep, okay? Think you can do that?” Maybe he shouldn’t have asked, but Niall had propped himself up on an elbow and Rosie’s eyes were already falling closed again anyways, so he had really high hopes as she nodded sleepily, cuddling tighter into the pillow. “I’m here if anything happens, okay, if… if you have a nightmare or so. Goodnight, Rosie.” 

“Goodnight… “ She mumbled somewhere into her stuffed dog, and right when Niall thought she wouldn’t say anything anymore, she continued, quietly and with closed eyes. “I really like you, Niall… and my daddy really likes you too… he told me not to tell anybody but yesterday when I woke up and couldn’t sleep and I went to his room he was really sad and I asked him why and he said because he really likes you but he doesn’t know how to tell you… I don’t want my daddy to be sad… can you talk to him? Maybe if you tell him that you like him too he will feel better.”

“I… of course, I can, Rosie… I’ll talk to him and I promise he won’t be sad, yeah? Try and sleep now.” There was a huge fucking lump in Niall’s throat as he watched Rosie nodding before closing her eyes with a smile, probably thinking that the problem was already solved. Oh, what would have Niall given for everything to be so damn easy?

 

\----------------------

 

Liam was really anxious as he waited, both really angry at the doctor for not just letting him go home but also at himself for being so damn fucking stupid. He had almost gotten Rosie hurt, had she not run off to look at this damn dog, she would have been right there with him waiting to cross the street and… god, who knows what could have happened to her, she could have died and it would have been all Liam’s fault for… he didn’t even know for what. 

He wasn’t severely injured, just a broken wrist, a few bruised rips and random cuts, though the broken bone in his hand had needed small surgery, he had been promised that he ‘d be able to go home as soon as possible, so hopefully tonight. When Liam had woken up, he had had no idea where he had been, the pain from his wounds having been played a role as well, almost freaking out for two terrible minutes where he hadn’t known where his daughter was.

But she was with Niall, luckily, and Liam had never been so damn relieved in his whole life. Of course he had immediately ordered for someone to call him and bring her in and well… obviously he wanted to see Niall too, to thank him and also… also because they really needed to talk.

For the time Liam was just waiting, trying to sit up a bit, he almost had an hour to try and think of the right words to say, to apologize more like, for acting like such a douche and… and for just leaving and then kinda ignoring Niall and god… he was just really scared, and that was no excuse at all for his behavior, but… it was the truth anyways. He liked Niall, genuinely liked him, and he wanted to try this really badly, that one night with him having been more than just amazing and… Niall himself was amazing too, and now he was taking care of Rosie even though they had this thing standing between them and god… Liam had really fucked it up, hadn’t he?

When there was a knock on the door, the brunette man almost jerked into a fully sitting position, stopping himself in the last second though because it would have surely hurt like hell. Instead, he cleared his throat, trying to mentally prepare himself for what was about to happen. “Y-Yeah… come in.”

As soon as the door opened, Liam’s worries kinda vanished into thin air as he saw Rosie, her face brightening up as soon as she saw him, letting out a squeal before she immediately let go of Niall’s hand to run over to the bed. “Daddy!”

“Hey, bug, everything alright?” She was too small to get on the bed herself and Liam couldn’t really lift her with cracked ribs and a broken wrist, but Niall was there a second later, kinda avoiding the older’s eyes as he lifted her up on the mattress before stepping back a bit and Liam barely had time to take notice of it because his daughter was already all over him.

“Daddy, I missed you so much. Are you hurt?” Of course it hurt when she moved to cuddle up to him, but Liam ignored the pain as he held her, kissing every inch of her face he could reach until she was giggling. Thank god she was alright, he would have never been able to forgive himself if anything had happened to her. 

“I’m fine, pumpkin, don’t worry, okay? It’s all gonna be good, I missed you too, baby, give me a kiss.” Liam went over to stroke her hair with his uninjured hand after she had shortly pecked his lips, letting her examine the cast he had on the other even though it stung. “It’s just a cast, love, it’s gonna make it feel better, okay? I’m sorry I wasn’t with you yesterday, the doctors had to fix me a little bit, did you… did you have a good time with Niall?”

The last part had come harder over Liam’s lips, eyes flickering to where the blonde was standing, just watching them, offering a small smile as they looked at each other for a brief second. “Yes, he took me home and then we ate pizza in bed and we watched movies and I got to pick every single one and guess what, daddy, he has all my pictures on the fridge!”

“Oh, wow, that’s amazing, baby. Did you thank him for everything?” The thing with the pictures gave Liam a twist in the stomach, because well… obviously he knew about it and Rosie didn’t know of course, but it yet again almost forced him to look over to the blonde.

“Thank you, Niall.” Rosie was happy as ever, half lying in the crook of Liam’s arm, smiling at Niall who immediately returned it, coming a bit closer until he could ruffle her hair a bit.

“You’re welcome… how’re you doing?” He then finally addressed Liam, eyes full of worry as he looked down at the older man, as if he wasn’t even mad about what had happened between them.

“I’m good… thanks for taking care of her, Niall, really, I… “ Interrupting himself, Liam wasn’t quite sure how to say these things with his daughter present, and though she seemed very intrigued with his cast, she could still hear every single word. 

“It’s okay, Li, of course I took care for her, I… she told them to call me, you know… “ Well, Liam wasn’t surprised by that at all, Rosie loved Niall, had been bugging him the last few days asking why he hadn’t come over to visit at the coffee shop and it had become significantly harder to find excuses. “I… I was really worried about you, I thought… I thought maybe it’s something really bad and… anyways, I… I’m really glad you’re okay, Payno.”

“Yeah… me too.” His stomach had grown a bit warm from Niall’s words, the fact that the blonde cared about him so much making him feel a whole lot better and also a little tiny bit flushed. Like… he knew Niall liked him, but... “You can… sit down if you want.”

“Okay… “ Instead of sitting on the bed, Niall went to get the chair from the corner, putting it on the other side of Liam’s bed, rather close though to the brunette’s relief. “Harry and Louis will probably come over in a bit as well, I called them before, I think they’re kinda… pissed off a little bit, Harry was going off about it being irresponsible to not have an emergency contact number or something… “

“Oh… well… I probably should have one, right?” Liam had never really thought that it’d be necessary, but in all honesty… he would have probably written down Niall’s anyways. Which brought him back to another topic. “I… I wanted to apologize, for the last few days, but especially for… for leaving without saying a word. I was just… I didn’t think we’d… and then we did and it was amazing and in the morning, I… I kinda freaked out and I left and I didn’t know what to do or what to say to you, but now, I… Niall, I… I really like you, I-“

“See, daddy, I told you you had to tell him.” Rosie chirped in in the middle of Liam’s confession, immediately making the blonde laugh and Liam smile a bit as he kissed her temple. At least the mood had gotten less serious.

“Yeah, you did, bug… “ He mumbled against her skin, inside a bit anxious though about Niall’s answer, but judging by the look on his face, it wasn’t gonna be too bad.

“I forgive you, Liam, it’s alright, I… I know why you did it and I know why you’re having doubts, but… I’m still here and… I really like you as well, but you probably already know that.” And just to make Liam’s heart bump even faster, the blonde looked at him for the split of a second before suddenly reaching out until he could rest his hand on the older’s arm, thumb brushing over the skin, sending a million goosebumps all over Liam’s body.

They looked at each other, both with blushed cheeks but with a smile and Liam was kinda a little bit feeling the painkillers he had gotten, but seeing Niall sitting there, looking gorgeous as ever, having forgiven him just like that, just because he really was being serious about all of this, having taken excellent care of Liam’s daughter even though he wouldn’t have had to kinda gave the brunette man a sort of ‘fuck it’ feeling.

“I… come here.” Was all Liam said, moving his arm until he could grab a hold of Niall’s hand, seeing the blonde’s eyes growing a bit wider as he understood what the brunette man meant.

Niall’s eyes flickered to Rosie, who was now busy playing with the blanket Liam was half covered with, but the older man just shrugged, not minding if his daughter was watching or not as he gently pulled on Niall’s hand until the blonde finally got up just to lean down over Liam, waiting just like a few days ago, for silent permission.

It was a short but firm kiss, not going too deep since Rosie was literally right there, but Liam once again felt the butterflies in his stomach, breathing the blonde in, the way he tasted, how his lips felt pressed up against Liam’s and it was honestly the best feeling in the entire world. Shit, he was proper in love with this boy. 

“Ewww, that’s yucky.” Rosie sort of interrupted them when the kiss had gone a little further and Niall pulled away with a laugh, his face having brightened up like the sun and as Liam lifted his arm to touch the dimple appearing on his cheek whenever he laughed, the blonde turning even redder than he had already been. 

“Niall… I really wanna try this, if… if you still want to as well.” Liam kinda wanted to use the actual words, just ask Niall then and there to be his boyfriend, but he held back for now, because they still had enough time, and as he got a massive grin and yet another kiss as an answer, Liam was perfectly happy with how things had turned out anyways.

Later, when he had Rosie lying on his one side and Niall on the other, still in his chair though but having moved it close enough so he’d be able to rest his head in the crook of Liam’s shoulder, Liam suddenly had a feeling overcoming him that almost caused him to tear up. Yeah, he still had worries, still knew that this was only the beginning, but as he pressed a kiss onto the top of Rosie’s head and then on Niall’s as well because it was right there, he was pretty sure that he couldn’t actually have gotten any luckier.

 

\-------------- 5 years later --------------

 

“C’mon, love, time to get up.” Niall had run out of options to get Rosie to wake up, because she just seemed to love her sleep, even now, after he had tried for the fifth time in a row to wake her, gently shaking her, running his fingers through her hair, kissing her cheek. “Rosie… c’mon, you gotta go to school, babe.”

“But I’m tired, dad… “ She whined, trying to bury herself deeper in the sheets and the pillow, so the man was forced to use his very last option, even though she’d probably be really mad at him afterwards.

“Hmmm… if you don’t get up then I think you’re gonna get a visit from the tickle monster.” Just to proof his point and though he knew that she always insisted that she was way too old for that, he somehow got his hand underneath the blanket, finding her foot and immediately making her squeal as Niall just laughed. That always worked.

“Stop, I’m already up, see?” Though she seemed to have trouble keeping her eyes open, she had immediately sat up and the blonde man just smiled fondly, attempting to sort out her hair a bit, pressing a kiss to her forehead before moving to get up off the edge of the mattress. 

“Good girl. Get dressed, yeah? We don’t have so much time left anymore and you gotta eat some breakfast.” Not necessarily if it went after Niall because she always claimed she wasn’t hungry in the morning, but Liam would have definitely not let an excuse like that pass. Which was good, because one of them needed to make sure their children also learned the healthy option of everything and not the one where Niall would have ordered in every single night. But they were a team, so of course Niall was backing Liam up.

Leaving Rosie alone so she could get dressed, hopefully not again with two different socks and the oldest shirt she could find like she did once a while ever since she was allowed to pick out all her own clothes, Niall slowly made his way to the kitchen, having to suppress a bit of a yawn and trying to somewhat fix his hair while he walked, shoving up the sleeves of his button up. 

“… should we put in some strawberries as well, huh? What do you think, Mia? I think your sister likes them, and your daddy, too.” Of course Liam got nothing but an undefinable sound as an answer from the one-year-old he was balancing on his hip while putting more fruit into the blender, but he didn’t seem to mind that at all and Niall had the biggest smile on his face as he walked over to them.

“Hmmm… you could be right with that, but I think I like something else more… “ Niall hadn’t tried to be quiet in any way, not having wanting to scare Liam when he was holding their daughter, stepping up behind him, on arm wrapping around Liam’s stomach on the side where he wasn’t holding Mia, letting his hand slip underneath his husband’s shirt. The blonde’s cheek was resting on Liam’s shoulder blade, pulling a face at his daughter as she looked at him over the brunette’s shoulder, making her giggle in the cutest way ever. “Good morning… again.”

“Good morning to you too, Nialler. Did you get her to wake up?” Liam probably asked out of routine, continuing to put in fruit before turning on the blender, hand coming to a rest on Niall’s wrist on his stomach instead, just holding on lightly, thumb rubbing over the skin and the blonde let his eyes fall closed for a second.

“I think so… I’ll check on her in five minutes.” Or a little sooner, because they’d eventually run out of time. “Need me to do anything?”

“No, I already did everything I think- oh, you could put out plates, I totally forgot about those.” Pressing a kiss to the back of Liam’s neck, Niall slowly let his arm sink only to step around the older man, giving Mia a kiss on the forehead before turning towards his husband of two years, taking in his messy morning hair and kinda sleepy eyes before pressing their lips together in a warm and familiar kiss, rubbing his hand up and down the older’s clothed chest. 

“Okay… I love you.” Though Niall said it multiple times a day, it still caused Liam to grab onto his waist, holding him tighter as he deepened the kiss just slightly, making the blonde smile against his plush lips.

“I love you more… “ Liam mumbled back, not really leaving Niall any chance to protest because his mouth was back on top of the blonde’s again in the matter of half a second. It was fine though, they were playing this game a lot and neither of them would ever win it anyways.

“Gross.” Rosie was the one who caused them to pull apart, having gotten a bit lost in the kiss and each other’s arms, even more so once Liam had put down Mia because she had started to move her legs a bit too much, wanting to be on the floor so she could play with the toys lying down there that no one had put away last night.

“Hey, good morning, sleepyhead.” The brunette man greeted Rosie with a chuckle, arms still wrapped tightly around Niall as the younger man was still hugging his waist as well, momentarily resting his cheek right beneath Liam’s neck, quietly breathing him in. He still smelled like sleep, and a little bit like his cologne, and had Niall not had to leave for work in about 30 minutes, he could have slept in like this while standing. Times like these, he really wished he could have worked from home like Liam, but then again, Liam was also still taking uni classes and Niall was pretty damn glad to be done with those. “I like your shirt.”

“Thanks. Me and my friends bought it together and we said we would all wear it today.” She was beaming and Niall was pretty sure he had heard that story before because when he had picked her up from having hung out with her friends at the mall (only with one of her friends’ mum’ because she was only 9 after all), she had been super proud of showing it to him. 

Unwillingly pulling away from Liam, Niall kissed the brunette’s jaw before stepping around him to finally get those plates, letting Rosie give her dad a good morning kiss while he quickly set up the table before collecting his other daughter from the floor, allowing her to take one toy with her before setting her in the high chair. “There you go, babes, you hungry?”

Again, just some attempts at words that still made Niall smile though as he ran his fingers through the short hair she had before going to get her breakfast, half listening to the conversation Liam was having with Rosie before it resulted in a lot of laughter and some tickles. Maybe this morning wasn’t turning out so bad after all. 

Somehow Liam always managed to get up 10 minutes before Niall just to be able to make breakfast and though the blonde really appreciated it, he did feel slightly bad for the time he stayed in bed longer than Liam, unable to even move. Being a grown up and having a fulltime job and two kids wasn’t so easy after all though, it’s something Niall had had to learn rather quickly after uni, but he still wouldn’t have wanted to change anything about it, he had Liam after all, the best husband anyone could have ever asked for.

“But I’m not hungry, can’t I just skip breakfast? I promise I’ll eat all my lunch at school.” The usual daily struggle, Niall just smiled a bit as Liam rolled his eyes, letting the brunette man deal with this while attempting to feed the baby instead and keep her from smearing everything across her face. 

“Just eat a little bit, okay? And drink your juice, I just made it.” Liam pushed over a full glass to her across the table, of course causing Rosie to roll her eyes a bit, but she gave in then without any protest. Usually she always listened to Liam and of course she listened to Niall as well, but it was kinda different. Niall was the kinda dad you went to when you have done something you shouldn’t have or when you need someone to play Xbox with and Liam was the one who was there when the boys at school made fun of you and you need a cuddle And also the one who usually did the scolding. “How’s it taste?”

“Not so g-“

“Great, babe.” Niall was only lying a little tiny bit, he wasn’t exactly a fan of juice or fresh fruits, but ever since Liam had gotten on the healthy train, he was really trying his hardest to at least try and keep up. 

“D’you want some more?” Of course Liam knew about Niall’s struggle, because he smirked after the offer, causing the blonde to glare just a tiny bit at him, making sure Rosie couldn’t see.

“No, thanks, I… I’ve still got some left.” Too much. “Who wants toast?”

The brunette man just chuckled, letting Niall be as he started to give out toast to everyone, even to Rosie despite the fact that she was yet again pulling a bit of a face. So all in all, it was a very usual morning for them, the way it had been for about two years now and Niall couldn’t have felt luckier to have all of this, having two daughters and a husband and a rather nice flat and friends who were always there for them and his family and Liam’s and yet somehow, things were still getting better every single day. It was like, waking up next to Liam every morning, Niall’s heart could have bursted with love for him and it wasn’t getting any less and he knew that this was exactly how he wanted to spend the rest of his life.

After a while, Rosie started feeding Mia some of the spare fruit they were having, the two got along pretty well and usually Mia would eat more whenever it was her sister giving her food so they just let her and though they’d have to leave in a few minutes, Niall stayed seated, head resting on Liam’s shoulder, stroking his arm all the way down to his hand that was resting on the blonde’s upper thigh.

“You alright, baby?” Liam asked quietly, kissing the top of Niall’s head, his free hand coming up to cup the younger’s cheek for a moment, thumb brushing over the skin and Niall allowed his eyes to close for a bit, trying to suppress a yawn.

“Yeah, ‘m fine, just tired. You?” They usually went to bed kinda early, since they had to get up in the morning and everything, but it had been their anniversary last night and though they hadn’t really been able to do much during the day, well… Niall was just glad that their daughters had slept in fairly early. 

“Me too… do you want me to drive? I gotta go to the store anyways.” The brunette man usually did all the grocery shopping with Mia while Rosie was at school and Niall was at work, but the blonde tried to do it or at least come along whenever he had time even though Liam always told him he didn’t mind at all. But they were married, they needed to share the work. 

“No, ‘s fine, Li, I’m good. Last night was… really amazing.” Speaking quietly so Rosie wouldn’t hear, Niall felt himself smiling as Liam chuckled softly, once more kissing the top of Niall’s head until the blonde slowly lifted it so they could look at each other.

“Yeah? I think so too… “ His eyes were soft, the same brown ones Niall had felt butterflies looking at for the last five years now and nothing had ever changed about that. It was only getting stronger. “I love you so much.”

“I know… I love you too, Liam. Always.” Tilting his head upwards, Niall waited for Liam to brush their noses together before letting his eyes fall closed, waiting for the older man to close the gap. It was a short kiss, the kinda kisses they had most of the time during the day, but it was alright because they had enough time to do these things later at night anyways. And whenever they found a babysitter so they could go on a date. 

Niall lingered in the kiss for a while before pulling back and they shared a smile, staying close like this until the blonde was forced to take a look at the clock and realized that they’d be running late if they didn’t move to leave now. Rosie always went to school with Niall, because the blonde was teaching at the high school nearby, so it was a lot easier than as if she had taken the bus. But it also meant that Niall ran late once a while whenever he had to wait on her.

“C’mon, honey, we gotta leave, let’s grab your school bag, yeah?” Unwillingly pulling away from Liam, Niall pecked the older’s lips once more before starting to collect some plates, not wanting Liam having to do all of the dishes by himself. 

“Do I have to wear a jacket?” Rosie asked, trying out her puppy eyes and face but before Niall could have even reacted, Liam had already jumped in.

“Of course, it’s cold outside. Go on, get your school bag, love.” Though she pretended to be pouting, she did run off to her room, right after giving Mia a kiss, making the baby giggle and making grabby hands at her. 

Liam and Niall tried to clean the kitchen quickly, even though the brunette insisted that he could do it on his own, Niall simply ignored him until he was running out of time and almost had to run to get his own stuff and his shoes on, trying to make Rosie hurry up a bit because as usual, she was being pretty slow. 

“Dad, can you help me with that?” While Liam hurried to help their older daughter zipping up her jacket, Niall went to quickly get her lunch bag before taking Mia into his arms once more, placing her on his hip, struggling just slightly not to drop his bag at the same time.

“Have a good day baby girl, and be good for your daddy, okay? Make sure he doesn’t get too stressed, yeah? I love you.” He kissed her face a few times, smiling as she laughed before handing her off to Liam who had finally managed to get Rosie dressed. All that stress in the morning could get a bit too much, but it was good though, that was just their life and Niall wouldn’t have wanted to change it. 

“Bye, love, have a good day. And text me once you’re there, okay? I’ll miss you, babe, see you in the evening.” Since they had already had their slight make out session before, they only pecked each other on the lips shortly, even though Liam’s free hand did wander a bit too much underneath Niall’s shirt, making him chuckle. “Bye, pumpkin, have a good day, yeah? Don’t forget to hand in your homework and good luck on your report. I love you.”

“Love you too, daddy.” She hugged him briefly and half sideways, softly poking Mia’s stomach a bit and causing her to gurgle. “Bye, Mia.”

And that’s how they finally made it outside, five minutes too late but Niall could probably make up for that if he ran a little bit later and his students weren’t exactly gonna be mad, so whatever. Liam was on the balcony before they got in the car, waving a bit and trying to make Mia do the same. Looking at him like that and blowing the older man a kiss, just freezing lightly, stuck in thoughts for just a moment, Niall knew that even though things weren’t gonna be and hadn’t always been easy but… considering all the happiness and love he had felt ever since he had met Liam, he knew whatever might happen, they’d always be there for each other and maybe he had never really believed in true love, but if he anybody had asked him now, he would have described it exactly like that.


End file.
